


We Have an Accord

by cruisedirector, Zwarte Parel (Celandine)



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Adventure, Afterlife, American Indian, Anal Sex, Apples, Drama, F/M, Female Character In Command, Fountain of Youth, Foursome - F/M/M/M, Goddesses, Jealousy, M/M, Magic, Monkeys, Multi, Ocean, Open Marriage, Open Relationships, Oral Sex, Pirates, Post-At World's End, Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex, Romance, Sailing, Sharing a Bed, Smut, Threesome - F/M/M, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-20
Updated: 2011-05-21
Packaged: 2017-10-19 15:39:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 36,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/202460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruisedirector/pseuds/cruisedirector, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/pseuds/Zwarte%20Parel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the aid of the late Will Turner and James Norrington, Elizabeth Swann strikes a bargain with Captains Barbossa and Sparrow for passage to the Fountain of Youth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> We began this long, long ago in 2007, and are pleased to be able to present it at last in 2011! Spoilers for POTC:AWE, not canonical with POTC:OST.

There was only one sensible place for Hector Barbossa to look for Jack Sparrow. Jack couldn't sail all the way to Florida in a dinghy, and since Hector had left him in Tortuga with little more than that and a bottle of rum, it was likely that Jack would proceed just as he had when he last pursued the _Black Pearl_ under Barbossa's command: by stealing a ship from Port Royal.

Hector sent Pintel and Ragetti to find Jack. He wasn't foolish enough to leave his ship under the command of anyone else, particularly with those two fools lately from the Royal Navy promising to guard it with their lives. His men wouldn't make the most discreet of inquiries, but at least that would put the word out that anyone who signed up to help Sparrow would soon be pursued by the _Black Pearl_.

What Hector hadn't counted on was an unexpected visitor.

"Mrs. Turner," he said in his most charming tone. "You're looking none the worse for your condition. In fact, one might even say that you're glowing."

"Captain Barbossa," replied Elizabeth in her typical aristocratic tone. "This is not a social visit. I am here as King of the Brethren Court..."

"Ah, but the court's not a-meetin' now," Hector reminded her with a pleasant smile. "If you want something from me, you'll have to make me an offer, same as any other pirate."

Elizabeth strode forward and Hector reached for his sword. But he didn't relish the idea of fighting a woman who was breeding, and apparently that not-yet-showing belly slowed her down, because she didn't draw a weapon. "I won't see my husband again for almost ten years," she hissed. "I do not intend to spend that time growing old gracefully. I know where you plan to sail this ship, and I want you to take me with you."

Hector found himself smiling widely at her, even though he knew his grin revealed every one of his rotten teeth. "It's not that I wouldn't welcome female companionship, and I know you to be an asset in a hard blow," he said. "But, Mrs. Turner, we find ourselves in a bit of a fix. You see, Jack Sparrow has stolen the navigational charts, and I don't imagine he'll be offering them to me."

"I don't imagine he would offer them to _you_ , no," Elizabeth agreed in a pleasant tone. She moved around the cabin, running her fingers across the smooth wood of the furniture, picking up various trinkets and setting them down again. "Which is why I have a proposition to put to you."

"And just what is it you're thinking to proposition me with?" Hector cocked his head at her. "It cannot be the usual sort of bribe. And I'll have you know that I have a bushel of apples in the galley, all fresh and crisp."

Elizabeth laughed, a short burst that seemed to come unwillingly from her throat. "Yes, I'd heard about that. I've no intention of bribing you with such fripperies as apples or women or even gold. But you see, I believe I may be able to... persuade _Captain_ Sparrow to share those charts with me. For the good of the Brethren, of course. And as you are one of the Brethren..." She raised her eyebrows at him enquiringly. "Would you be interested in a bargain of that nature, Captain Barbossa?"

Hector examined his fingernails. They were long, and yellow, and in need of a clipping. "To my recollection, Jack was none too pleased with your leaving him to the Kraken," he observed. "And the good of the Brethren tends to come and go from Jack's interests -- as I told you once, the Code is more of a guide."

"That isn't what Captain Teague seemed to believe," Elizabeth retorted, making Hector grin again. He suspected that Jack was at least as afraid of his sire as he had been of that poor beast now rotting on an island. "Thanks to you, Calypso rules these seas again, not the East India Company. We pirates still need to work together."

"All right, then, what be you proposing?" Thinking that she might not appreciate rum in her condition, Hector tossed her an apple. "You to convince Jack to give you those charts in return for passage for you both to the Fountain of Youth?"

"For a start," Elizabeth agreed, returning Hector's cunning smile.

"And for a finish?"

She bit into the apple, the juice of it running down her chin. "I should think that knowing the course to the Fountain of Youth would be a sufficient recompense for you to endure Jack's presence on the _Pearl_. What more do you want, the philosopher's stone? The universal panacea? Jason's golden fleece? Better to keep this bargain simple."

"If left open to renegotiation." Hector swept off his hat and bowed floridly. "Done, then."

"Done. The first thing we must do is find Jack, of course."

Elizabeth had somehow managed to seat herself in Hector's favorite chair. He huffed under his breath and reminded himself that the chit was his best chance for obtaining the charts. And that she was not a bad-looking woman, for a pirate king. "I have men looking for him even now."

She laughed outright at him. "Pintel and Ragetti, so I heard. They'll not find Jack if he doesn't want to be found. But I can. I know Port Royal better than any of your men, and I know which palms to cross with gold for information." Her smile was shrewd. "Growing up as the Governor's daughter had its advantages."

"So you've always made clear, Captain Turner." Hector offered her a sincere tip of his hat, even as he was gesturing to Jack -- that is to say, the monkey -- to follow her. He had few doubts that she would succeed, as she always seemed to do. She was as ambitious as Sparrow and more clever than her husband.

Elizabeth nodded, though her eyes had turned melancholy. "I think that perhaps it had better be Captain Swann," she said. "Will is Captain Turner."

"As you wish," Barbossa agreed, though he couldn't help but wonder what sort of arrangement the pair had made before separating for ten long years. What had she done with the heart? Would it call her husband to her at the right time, no matter the shore upon which she stood? And in the meantime, where would she find solace... and where would he?


	2. Chapter 2

Calypso waited until after Will had found James Norrington to put in an appearance.

"I should not be here!" he insisted, spluttering, when they pulled him from the water, one lost soul among many. "I died fighting Jones, on the deck of this ship. Not in the sea!"

"The _Dutchman_ isn't like other ships," Will reminded him. "Davy Jones used to say, 'I am the sea!' If you fell on the deck of the _Flying Dutchman_ , then you died at sea, whether it was the waves that found you or an enemy weapon."

"It was that man," Norrington snarled, pointing past Will at the wheel, and Will turned to see his father lock eyes with the onetime admiral.

"You were aiding the prisoners' escape."

"He wasn't in his right mind at the time," Will threw in hastily. "Commodore Norrington. Do you really wish to return to _that_?" He gestured at the fleet of tiny bobbing boats, each with its own pale occupant. "I know you do not fear death, or you'd have accepted the offer I've no doubt Jones made you, but you're too good a man to let go so easily."

Norrington still glared. "Flattery from the blacksmith?"

"From the captain of the _Dutchman_ ," said Bootstrap, and Will stifled a groan. His father doubtless meant well, but Norrington was not likely to listen to the man who had killed him.

"About your duties, man." Will turned to Norrington, who wore an expression of surprise. "I _am_ the captain now, and unlike Jones I intend to fulfill my duties."

"You're... captain?" Norrington frowned. "According to the tales I heard..."

"Yes, ten years before I may again step on dry land, and that -- in part, at any rate -- is why I have need of you."

Norrington's frown, at least, had softened into something that spoke if not of respect, then at least of sympathy. "Let me fill you in a bit," added Will. "Elizabeth sailed the _Empress_ to Shipwreck Cove, where the Brethren Court was meeting. The pirate lords made her their king." He enjoyed the look of surprise in Norrington's eyes -- Norrington had always underestimated Elizabeth, and himself. "Captain Barbossa convinced the other pirate lords to free the sea goddess who had charged Jones with ferrying the souls of the dead to the world beyond this one. Beckett and Jones were both killed, and the rest of the East India Company's armada turned back."

"Killed?" Norrington asked ironically. "As I was killed? And Captain Barbossa?" His eyes had traveled the crease in Will's shirt to the still-red scar above his heart. "How did you come to command the _Flying Dutchman_?"

"Killed, or passed on... it makes little difference." Though Will knew that that was not exactly true. Nobody, not even he, knew what had become of Davy Jones. Was the _Dutchman_ 's former captain trapped in his own version of eternal damnation, or had Calypso forgiven him in the end? "I stabbed his beating heart. I don't remember much about it... I was dying myself. Jack gave up immortality to bestow it upon me."

"I didn't realize that you and Captain Sparrow were on such intimate terms," Norrington said with only the faintest hint of sarcasm.

"Oh, and Elizabeth... I married her."

It wasn't as if the engagement was unknown to Norrington, though he might not have been aware that the ceremony itself had been interrupted by Cutler Beckett's unexpected and unwelcome interference. Nevertheless the man went white to the lips, as if he had been struck a blow.

"You married? When? How could you..." Norrington trailed off, shaking his head.

"During the fight with the East India Company. Barbossa married us." Will shrugged. "I grew tired of waiting for the opportune moment, and followed the proverb of my former trade, to strike when the iron was hot."

"So you did so before you became the captain of this ship. I understand better, now."

"Surely you wouldn't think that I'd have tied her to me so hopelessly otherwise?" asked Will with some heat. "Do you think me less willing than you were to give her up, if that were in her best interests?"

"Ah, but she _wished_ to wed you. Our circumstances were quite different. Not that it matters now." Shaking his head, Norrington looked around the deck. "Should I presume that over the years I will have the dubious pleasure of developing the same tentacular and shelly excrescences that that other sailor had, though he's now apparently lost them with the change of captain? And, if I may ask, why is it that you felt the need to restore me to this unwanted semi-life? I was quite content to travel the Styx... I even looked forward to the waters of Lethe, if they truly exist."

"Perhaps the Water of Life might interest you even more?"

Will could see that Norrington was about to offer a retort about that legend when something crawling on the deck caught his eye. It was a crab. Normally Will would have paid it no attention, but it was quickly followed by a second, then a third. "You won't become a corrupted sea creature unless you interfere with this ship's mission," he said distractedly, watching as a fourth crab, a fifth, a sixth crept across the wooden planks.

"And now, I suppose, you are going to explain to me that the Water of Life is no more myth than Davy Jones' Locker, and that the Spaniard de Leon in fact found that fabled stream..."

"Shh!" Norrington gazed at Will in surprise, but Will no longer had a moment to spare for him. "Calypso!" he said loudly, addressing the pile of crabs that was increasing by the moment, assuming something resembling human female form. "I am fulfilling the duties with which I am charged as captain of the _Flying Dutchman_. Why have you come?"

The crabs shivered, shimmered, and seemed to blend, and a moment later, a familiar dark-skinned woman was smiling at Will. "A touch of destiny, as I foretold you," she crooned, stepping lightly across the deck to stroke a long-nailed finger down his cheek. "As captain of the _Dutchman_ , you can live forever. Why would you seek the Fountain of Youth?"

"Excuse me," interrupted Norrington, extending a hand. "James Norrington, late of His Majesty's Navy. I don't believe that we've been introduced."

Calypso ignored Norrington's gesture, instead tipping her head to gaze at him intently. "Him saved you from the dark waters... but you do not know if you wish to be saved." Her fingernails bit deeper into Will's jaw. "Why have you done this, William Turner?"

"I will only live forever if I captain the _Dutchman_ forever... and that is a long time indeed." Will gripped Calypso's wrist, pulling her arm away. "A _very_ long time, for a wedded man. Unlike Jones, I don't abandon my duties, but that doesn't mean that I would not prefer to have alternatives available, sooner or later. Elizabeth does not share this immortality, as you know."

Norrington drew in a sharp breath. "So you wish to find the Fountain on her behalf."

"It is a dangerous thing you seek." Calypso had held still under Will's grasp, but now she slipped away from him as easily as a wave upon the seashore, moving to gaze across the water. Will saw Norrington's eyes follow her. "The Fountain of Youth is as perilous as the sea herself. Why do you choose this man to help you?"

"I wanted to ask him the same question," said Norrington dryly. "Why me? Why not one of the crew you already have?"

"Because you care about Elizabeth," said Will intently. "She told me that you freed her when she was a prisoner aboard this ship. Whatever you were, you are a man of integrity where she is concerned. For that, I owe you a debt."

"And you believe that denying me my eternal reward by pulling me aboard this vessel is fair compensation?" Norrington sounded incredulous. "I do not fear death. I told Jones just that, moments before I died."

Will cast a glance at Calypso. "If he had been truly at peace, would he and I be having this conversation?"

Eyes fixed on Norrington, Calypso shook her head. "Him has earned the right to move on," she conceded. "But him has never known love." Will watched a slow blush move across Norrington's handsome features as the sea goddess moved behind him, her hands sliding up his arms. "And him does not wish to leave behind his mortal life without tasting that happiness for himself."

Norrington shook his head very slightly. "You are a braver man than I had given you credit for," he said to Will. "You would trust me to be honest, and Elizabeth to be faithful?"

If Will did expect the onetime admiral to be honest, he knew, he owed Norrington the same. "I won't see Elizabeth again for ten years. I never asked that she be faithful in body, only in her affections. My heart is quite literally in her hands."

At that Norrington's eyes widened. "Not only braver, but more generous."

"Not _more_ generous," Calypso said. "Him may offer you a chance at such happiness, James Norrington, but did you not do the same?"

"Love may bring pain as well as joy, as we all three know well." It was Calypso who had suffered most in love; Will rather wondered that she now seemed ready to aid others to achieve it. Unless this was some subtle scheme of revenge upon himself? No, for she could not have known what his intentions were... could she?

"So what would you have me do?" Norrington sounded, if not eager, at least interested now.

"Seek Sparrow and Barbossa on the _Pearl_. They had a chart that purported to show where the Fountain of Youth could be found; it led us to Davy Jones' Locker, so I hope that it will serve as a guide to the Fountain too. I don't know whether one must drink straight from the Fountain itself, or if the waters could be brought away." Will looked at Calypso, but she only gave him one of her enigmatic smiles. "Perhaps you'd better find Elizabeth first, and travel with her."

"How am I to convince her that she should follow me?" Norrington asked. "I helped her escape, but I doubt she trusts me."

"Show her this." Will knew that he would not have to identify the sword he held out; it was the one he himself had made, given by Elizabeth's father to then-Commodore Norrington on the occasion of his promotion, which had passed to Davy Jones upon Norrington's death and then become Will's again when it took his life. "She knows I had it with me when last I saw her."

"And... forgive me if this sounds like a naive question, but being dead, how am I to reach her?"

Will glanced at Calypso. "You brought Barbossa back," he said speculatively. "I cannot help but wonder what has brought you here, so soon after James Norrington was brought aboard this vessel."

Calypso looked sad. "My Davy Jones in his own locker lies," her mournful voice crooned. "A different fate must be yours, William Turner." Straightening, she faced Norrington. "Would you choose this fate, James Norrington? Would you return to the land of the living, despite the cost must be paid?"

"What cost?" asked Will and James simultaneously.

"This ship must have a crew," Calypso pointed out.

"But it does have..." Norrington began, when Will interrupted with a shake of his head.

"Only a handful, now. The man you saw earlier -- my father, who felt he owed me for his release. A few others remain from Jones's term, for much the same reason, and a couple who died when the _Interceptor_ went down. I need a crew, and I need reliable officers. This is no pirate vessel, nor am I Davy Jones to command through threat and bluster and fear." Will looked at Calypso. "That's the cost, isn't it? One hundred years before the mast. But there's nothing to say _when_ the price must be paid. Jack made his deal with Jones, his servitude for the _Pearl_ , and then went free for ten years before their reckoning was due."

"Aye, that be the cost you will pay. No easy price, James Norrington -- think you on it, before you agree." Calypso's expression was bleak.

"So my choice is to return to death's oblivion now, or accept the offer of Captain Turner: find the Water of Life for Elizabeth, and spend ten years with her, _if_ she'll have me, which is in serious question, and then pay for it all with a hundred years of service on the _Dutchman_? Have I put the proposition accurately?" James's tone was sardonic, but his eyes held a spark of hope, and his fingers twitched as if longing to hold his old sword once more.

"I believe you may find there are other incentives," Will said, smiling faintly. He had no intention of elaborating, here on the deck of his ship with his father and all crew members present listening intently -- not to mention Calypso, who surely had her own standards for appropriate behavior for the captain of the _Dutchman_ , different from Royal Navy regulations but no less rigorously enforced -- but he risked a wink at James, whose eyes widened as he took the sword from Will's outstretched hand.

"This feels real enough." Norrington tilted the sword so that the blade caught and reflected the sunlight. "But am I? Am I able to return to the land of the living just as I was?"

"Not as you were." A small, dangerous smile was playing about Calypso's lips. Will raised his eyebrows just as James turned to look at her. "Like Barbossa -- him still linked to the land of the dead."

Will expected Norrington to balk at that, but James glanced in his direction with amusement in his eyes before turning his full attention to Calypso. "If I understand you correctly, then it should be possible for me to come and go from this vessel without becoming trapped in either realm."

"That is so. But you be not invulnerable to death, despite your sojourn in those dark waters. You can be killed, and then you must serve your hundred years and return to the land of the living no more." Calypso's dark eyes held a malicious amusement. "A gamble, James Norrington, is what you make if you accept. Shall I roll the bones, tell you your future?"

"No, thank you." The former admiral's voice was cool and steady as he resheathed the sword. "I think I have heard enough to make my decision. I will take up your challenge, Captain Turner, and seek for the Water of Life to gift Miss Swann -- Mistress Turner, that is."

"I believe she prefers Pirate King Turner," Will murmured, and Norrington's lips quirked in a near-smile.

"Done, then," said Calypso, reaching out and joining their two hands. "A touch of destiny, I have said, and perhaps more than that."

Her fingers were warm and firm, but Will shivered. Calypso's look at them was speculative before she drew back and shook herself, a spray of salt water stinging Will's eyes so that he could not see for an instant. When he opened them again, blinking hard, he saw only crabs scuttling for the side and dropping off into the water.

"Does she always do that?" asked Norrington.

"Apparently," Will said. "I think she enjoys being able to take on her other forms, after being trapped as Tia Dalma for so long."

James did not look any different, but then neither had Barbossa, whom Will had seen fall dead the moment after his own blood lifted the curse keeping the _Black Pearl_ 's crew unnaturally alive. If anything, Barbossa had been more robust upon his return, not mad like Jack.

Will expected that Norrington would make a superb addition to the _Flying Dutchman_ 's crew; his actions since Elizabeth had found him drunken and miserable in Tortuga suggested that he craved respectability and honor more than glory and certainly more than freedom. Not a pirate, precisely, but a pirate was not what the _Dutchman_ needed.

As for what Will himself needed... this was not a moment to address that, yet he was quite certain from James' frank gaze that his wink and the shiver at the touch of his hand had not gone unnoticed. "Welcome to the _Flying Dutchman_ , Mister Norrington," he said formally. "Now, allow me to introduce you to my crew. I believe that you and my father are already acquainted..."


	3. Chapter 3

The simplest way to find Jack, Elizabeth knew, required not just coin but a more subtle sacrifice.

It was easy enough to convince Marguerite to sell her the dress, to rouge her cheeks and lips, to twist her hair in a mimicry of the fashion of the whores of Tortuga. Walking in fashionable ladies' shoes was a bit more difficult after all this time and in her condition, but at least Elizabeth had no belly yet to show -- her bosom was much larger than before, but for her current role, that would work to her advantage.

"But I simply _must_ find Jack," she said with a girlish laugh at the latest barman to deny any knowledge of the captain's whereabouts. Her fingers dropped a few grubby coins onto the table. "I promise you, good sir, he will thank you for sending me." A slight bend at the waist, and her newly plump breasts displayed themselves to her advantage.

The man rubbed at his stubbled chin with one hand, sweeping up the silver in the other and tucking it away quickly.

"Well," he said doubtfully. "I've heard tell that he's fond of the Hanged Man. Two streets down." He jerked a thumb in the direction of the docks. "He's not been seen here in months, but someone there might know more."

Elizabeth thanked him, both in words and by continuing to afford him a view of her bosom until she had finished the sour ale. She would have preferred rum, but ale was a better choice when she daren't become tipsy too quickly. Besides, she'd heard that ale was best for breeding women.

The Hanged Man was an even more questionable place than the last several she had visited. It was late afternoon now, and the only light in the room was what came in through the unchinked cracks in the walls. Elizabeth stood just inside the doorway, blinking. When her eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, she looked around and had to restrain herself from letting out a whoop of triumph. Not Jack, but perhaps the next best thing.

"Mr. Gibbs." She stood in front of him. "I thought you were sailing on the _Pearl_ with Captain Sparrow."

"Aye, that I was, but there was a slight complication," he said ruefully.

"Complication?" Elizabeth slid into a seat and waved the serving girl over, ordering ale for herself and rum for Gibbs.

"Jack and me were taking a bit of well-earned shore leave, y'see, and they sailed off without us."

"Barbossa and the rest? Mutiny again?"

Gibbs took a swallow of his rum and nodded. "He's too trusting, is Jack."

"Where is he now -- here with you?"

"No. He took the dinghy and went off." Gibbs grinned. "He didn't trust them completely, though. Brought the chart with him; the one that led us to..." He looked around and added in a whisper, "Davy Jones' Locker."

None of this was news to Elizabeth, of course. It had been easy enough to see through the story Barbossa had told her, particularly since some of Barbossa's own men were none too pleased about having left Jack behind. Now at least she knew that Gibbs trusted her, and also that he sincerely did not know Jack's whereabouts.

"Surely not even Jack could expect to sail all the way to Florida in a dinghy," she said with a smile both admiring and skeptical. "He'd have gone in search of a ship and crew. And if he left Tortuga without one..."

"...aye, he'd have gone to Port Royal." Gibbs finished the thought for her. She couldn't tell from his expression whether he was proud to have guessed Jack's likely destination or rather miffed not to have been invited along. "But what's your interest in Jack's whereabouts, Miss Swann, that is, Mrs. Turner, unless you prefer Captain Swann, or rather Captain Turner..."

"Elizabeth will do," she said with a conspiratorial smirk. "As you said, Jack has the navigational charts. You know the task with which my husband has been charged. If he is destined to live forever, I would prefer that he not do so alone."

"Then you mean to sail with Jack?" Gibbs made a curt movement with his head. "As you said, he'll be needing a crew."

"And for that, he may need funds." Something she could offer Jack. The late Governor Swann had not been a poor man, after all, and she was his only child. She pursed her lips thoughtfully. Jack doubtless had his reasons for leaving Gibbs behind, but those reasons might be as simple as not wanting to travel alone with him in a tiny dinghy.

"Jack is more like to offer a share of the spoils," Gibbs told her. "Give a man any pay before sailing, and he'll take it and run... or drink it up so that he can't remember which ship he's crew on."

"True enough, but provisions don't buy themselves." Elizabeth eyed him. "Would you be willing to go to Port Royal with me and search for Jack? With two, it would be much quicker." And Gibbs might hear things she, a woman, would not.

Gibbs nodded. "That I would. Tortuga's a fine port, but after a time I feel the need for a deck, not dirt, beneath my feet." He patted his pockets. "Bed and board are part of the bargain on board ship as well."

"Splendid," said Elizabeth. "We leave tomorrow."

Port Royal was much as it had always been. To Elizabeth's relief the presence of the East India Company was distinctly muted, now that Cutler Beckett was dead, although she still saw a number of men wearing company livery.

"Where do you suggest we start?"

Jack was not in prison, which was the first place Gibbs suggested that they check. Nor had he broken into the smithy or the armory.

Governor Swann's successor, a nondescript minor aristocrat with an overbearing wife, offered his most sincere condolences on her father's death but had nothing of use to offer. In fact he spent most of his time in her presence asking questions about Port Royal, about which he had apparently known absolutely nothing before being appointed governor.

"You don't suppose that Jack has already managed to find a crew and steal a ship?" Elizabeth asked Gibbs, though she was inclined to doubt it. Jack had many useful skills as a pirate but subtlety and discretion were not among them. If he had made off with a ship equipped for Florida, his departure would have been noted.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to check the less respectable side of town. Mister Gibbs..." She wanted very much to remind him that rum and business did not mix, but he was not, after all, in her employ; they merely had a common interest in finding Jack.

"If he's here, I'll bring him back to you," said Gibbs cheerfully. She wondered whether the smile was in anticipation of finding Jack, or of finding rum. "You wait here, Miss Elizabeth." His few years with Norrington as his lieutenant had apparently made him unable to use her forename completely unadorned, so this was his compromise.

She sighed and acquiesced. The room she had taken in a relatively respectable inn was tiny, hot, and had more insects than she was happy with, but she could sit down in the common room and perhaps pick up some gossip... knowledge always being a useful thing.

"Do report whatever you find tonight, please, even if you have learned nothing yet." She flashed him a smile and inhaled. She quite enjoyed having a greater endowment than she was accustomed to have; good leverage, with men. Perhaps she would be able to use it on Jack? Although that one seemed more in love with his ship and the sea than with any woman.

"Of course." Gibbs left hastily.

Elizabeth called for a cup of ale and a dish of whatever the cook had made that day, and settled in to wait, glancing up every time the door opened and a customer came in or out, hoping to see Gibbs return with good news.

She thought that perhaps her condition was affecting her mind, or that she had had too much ale, when she glanced up to see a familiar face come through the door. Perhaps, she told herself, James Norrington had had a twin brother of whom he had never spoken.

"Elizabeth," he said when he saw her, approaching with unexpected amusement in his eyes. Was it possible that James had had a twin brother of whom he had never spoken, but to whom he had spoken about her? "Your husband sends his love."

The voice belonged to James. The smile, the long, slender hand that he extended belonged to James as well. "My husband is traveling distant seas," she said automatically.

"Yes, I know, I've seen him there. In fact, he is the reason I am here. He pulled me from the sea aboard the _Flying Dutchman_ , and he put to me a proposition."

Admiral Norrington had not lived long enough to learn of Will's fate. Elizabeth felt the color drain from her face. "James? How...?"

He laughed. "You can ask that, who have sailed beyond World's End yourself, seen Barbossa and Sparrow both return, bidden farewell to a husband whose beating heart lies locked in a chest?"

The blood returned, crimsoning her cheeks. "The goddess Calypso needed Jack and Barbossa alive, to free her from her human form. Why is _your_ living presence so required?"

James signaled, and when his rum arrived, drank deeply. He noticed her eyes on him and laughed once more. "Don't worry. I've no intention of diving back into the barrel again, but the rations are thin on the _Dutchman_. There's a job to be done and making port is a rare occurrence, they tell me.

"Now." He leaned closer, his expression intent. "You may wish to hear of the proposition I mentioned, for it concerns you."

"In what way?" Elizabeth sipped from her own cup, clutching dignity around her. "Will's honor would not permit him to leave before his ten years are over, even if he could."

"So he has told me." At that moment Elizabeth had a full vision of James and Will standing side by side on the _Flying Dutchman_ in waters she could not travel. She had to push aside a surge of envy. Being with child was reputed to make women prone to fits of rage, but she did not intend to behave like such a woman. "He intends to carry out his duty to the ship. But he also intends to carry out his duty to you, and..."

James' eyes were sweeping over her again, taking in her broader bosom, her wider waist. Elizabeth had not thought her condition so obvious, but first Barbossa and now Norrington had realized almost at once. At least now she was not the only one who appeared to be struggling with jealousy.

"You carry Will Turner's child, do you not?" James asked softly.

"Indeed I do." She could not meet his eyes. Had circumstances been only slightly different, they both knew, it might have been Norrington's own child she bore. She did not believe that James bore Will any hatred for that, nor had he cast away his fortunes pining for her, yet she was reminded of that moment just before he gave his life to cover her escape: _Our lives have been joined, yet not entwined._

"I imagine you realize how much it disturbs your husband's mind to know that while he sails in the reach between worlds, unchanging, you face all the ravages of time. Disease. Danger. Possibly death."

"Of course." She knew the hazards of childbearing well; her mother had died at Elizabeth's own birth. "Which is why I am presently taking steps to allay those very dangers."

"You are?" She had forgotten the way his eyebrows arched in query. "What manner of steps, if I may ask?"

"I have struck a bargain with Captain Barbossa to sail the _Pearl_ in search of the Fountain of Youth," Elizabeth told him.

"Ah." James sucked in his breath. "Barbossa captains the _Pearl_ now? What of Sparrow?"

"Mutiny."

At her reply, James' lips quirked, and they shared a smile.

"Sparrow. The worst pirate I've ever seen. No, no. So it is Barbossa who now holds the chart showing how to find that legendary spring?"

"I fear not. My bargain is with Barbossa, but I must find Jack to fulfill it; he had the chart with him when he was abandoned on Tortuga, but Gibbs thinks he's here now, so we've come in search of him," Elizabeth said, gabbling the words, more distracted than she felt she should be by the heat in James' eyes. His was not the simple lust of the barmen and sailors she'd grown accustomed to in recent days; this was something at once more primal and more respectful, and it reminded her of Will... and of Jack as well.

"The last time Sparrow sailed into Port Royal, as I understand it, he gave a false name, distracted a pair of my guards and attempted to steal a ship, only he was thwarted when a beautiful woman fell into the sea and required rescuing." A smile played again about Norrington's lips. "Have you sent Gibbs to watch the docks?"

"Why would Jack steal a ship before finding a crew?" she asked in reply. "Last time, he needed Will's help to take the _Interceptor_."

"Much as it pains me to admit, he required little assistance to _take_ the ship," James reminded her. "Only to bring it into port in Tortuga. Of course, it would be madness to try to sail any vessel of that size alone..."

She was already on her feet. "Jack considers madness inspiration. We should be at the docks."


	4. Chapter 4

A hold full of rum had its advantages, but not when it was leaking. And an alcoholic captain could be turned to one's advantage, but not when he was stupid.

"I'm telling you, mate, a slight detour to Florida will make you the richest man in these waters."

The red-eyed man squinted up at Captain Jack Sparrow without anything like the proper respect. "I can't read these charts," he wheezed.

Jack was tempted to ask whether that was because the writing was not English or because there was writing at all. Instead he tried a charming smile. "If you will observe..." The second wheel turned. "Just here, clearly marked, the Fountain of Youth. Find it and you'll find your fortune."

 _Live forever, Jackie_ , said the voice in his head. For a moment he thought it was his father's. Then, "No, that's me." The captain squinted at him.

"Ye don't hear voices, do ye?"

"No," Jack assured him, but the captain did not seem to accept his statement.

"Not good, hearing voices," he said. "Makes the other men nervous, you understand." He pushed the charts back to Jack. "Take these and be off with you."

Shrugging, Jack rolled them up. No point in arguing with someone of that sort... not without plenty of rum to facilitate the process, and he suspected that it would be wasted on this man in any case. There were other ships yet to try; one of their captains was bound to be more amenable to his proposition.

He swung off the gangplank and looked around. Two days of inquiry had told him which ships were headed where, and there was no purpose in speaking with a captain whose destination was São Paulo in Brazil. Jack's boots clattered over the stone as he walked briskly toward his own dinghy. He didn't trust the dock-master not to have preempted his place, though he'd paid the man dockage for a week.

There was someone -- no, two people -- standing next to the tiny vessel. Jack slowed, squinting to try to recognize them before he let himself be seen in return.

There was no mistaking the woman, though he had once mistaken her for a boy; even breeding, her bosom and waist nicely rounded, Elizabeth Swann's posture and gestures gave her away. But the man with her... he was familiar yet not, dressed oddly, as if he did not quite belong in this port. Or indeed among these people.

 _Live forever, Jackie..._ Hector Barbossa had returned from the lands beyond, as had Jack himself. And now, apparently, so had James Norrington. In the moment that it took Jack to gulp and turn to creep away, the dead man called out. "Captain Sparrow!"

It was quite possibly the most respect with which Norrington had ever addressed him, but Jack could not afford to have his name shouted about the docks in such a manner if he expected to avoid both the port authority and the dozens of women who felt that they owed him a slap in the face. Or worse. "Commodore Norrington," he was forced to reply, gesturing with his hands for the late officer to keep his voice down. "That is to say, Admiral. Or is it Captain? You're looking very well for a corpse."

"I might say the same to you," Norrington replied cheerfully. "Although, thanks to this lady, you have your life back entirely, whereas I am here by the grace of the goddess Calypso -- I'm sure you remember her?"

Removing his hat, Jack offered Elizabeth a mock bow. "I have my life back thanks to that most traitorous and villainous pirate Hector Barbossa, to whom my debt has been paid in full and who has once again stolen my ship," he pointed out. "And if we needed any further proof, I think we call can agree that the goddess Calypso has very little grace or sense of fair play." He watched Elizabeth hide a smile. "Now. Since I have no particular credit with that goddess, nor have I any ship beyond this dinghy, if you will let me pass..."

"We need the charts, Jack," Elizabeth said. "The map to the Outer Gates that you have hidden in your pocket."

Jack gave her his most ingenuous smile. "The map? Whatever for?"

"For exactly the same reason you need it." A hint of exasperation came through Norrington's voice, and Jack immediately felt more comfortable. That was the man he knew, if not well. "We seek the Water of Life."

"Ah, I see. You tire of Calypso's whims and wish to achieve immortality on your own."

"No, I struck a bargain with the captain of the _Dutchman_." Norrington's hand came to rest on the hilt of his sword.

"And I one with your erstwhile first mate," Elizabeth added, her pose equally dangerous. Jack took a moment to admire it; the girl had come far indeed. "There is little purpose to be gained in circumlocution, and much time to be wasted. Barbossa will sail the _Pearl_ to wherever the chart directs, if I can persuade you to return with it."

It was pleasant to hear Elizabeth deny Hector his arrogated title, pleasant enough that the meaning of the rest of her words did not penetrate immediately. "He wants me to return?" Jack laughed. "Fooled me once, shame on him, fooled me twice, shame on me. I'm not fool enough to wish to be fooled a third time."

"You've had no success in finding a ship to take you alone," Norrington pointed out. "All you have is this dinghy, as you yourself said."

"What's the bargain you made with Will Turner?" Jack demanded. "Dearest Elizabeth has advanced with her colors flying, but you're sailing at night, lights doused. What is _your_ purpose, if not to conquer death for yourself?"

Norrington's glance flickered. "Turner may not set foot on land for nearly ten years more. I died at sea, even though by the sword, and so he was able to bring me back to seek the Water of Life, so that Elizabeth will age no more than he will, and to watch over her meantime."

Jack felt quite certain that there was more to the bargain than that. "Sheer altruism on your part, I take it."

"I note that you did not rush to embrace death, either, when the opportunity presented itself."

Out of the wig and girlish breeches, Norrington was really quite an attractive man. Although he had been an attractive man in uniform as well, Jack was forced to admit. "Did Captain Turner offer you... incentives?" he asked curiously.

Elizabeth made a small noise, ostensibly in outrage, though Jack couldn't help but notice her struggle not to smile. She, too, was quite an attractive man, even though she had reverted to petticoats and lace at the moment. If Jack had been the captain of the _Flying Dutchman_ , he'd not have settled for one or the other, but both.

"Let me see if I understand," Jack continued. "You wish me to turn over the charts to you, in exchange for passage on my own ship, which should by rights be under my command. It hardly seems fair compensation."

Elizabeth held up a hand. "We do not require that you turn over the charts, only that you accompany us aboard the _Pearl_. With the charts in your hand, you will be able to command Barbossa."

"And when Barbossa has me tossed in the brig and takes the charts?"

Elizabeth offered Jack her sweetest smile. "Surely you can't believe that your crew would permit such an outrage... again!"

"Given that they have permitted it twice? Why yes, as a matter of fact, I do believe it." Jack scratched at his beard. "So why should I accept your offer, Madam... pardon me, _Captain_ Turner?" He swept a florid bow as Elizabeth's face reddened.

"Not merely Captain," she reminded him, "but Pirate King. You'd be under my protection."

He eyed her. "I'd prefer being under you in other ways. Fine words, lady, but what's to prevent Barbossa from taking the charts while we all sleep?" Jack doubted that Hector Barbossa would go so far as to slit his throat to get the charts, or have one of the crew do so -- marooning gave the abandoned man at least a chance, and though Hector was not one to turn tail in a fight, neither did he have the stomach to kill a sleeping man in cold blood.

"If you're so concerned for your precious skin, Captain Swallow, may I point out that with three of us, one may be always awake?" James Norrington might have been instructing the greenest midshipman.

Jack nodded at Elizabeth. "'T'was her doing that I died the once."

"To save everyone else!" she protested. "And I helped bring you back from the Locker, too, or have you forgotten?"

"More to the point," said Norrington, "we are in Port Royal. Rumors of my demise having been greatly exaggerated, I doubt I would have any difficulty in ensuring that you were unable to find any ship that would carry you... if you were able to stay out of prison long enough to continue your inquiries." He gave Jack a wolfish grin. "Or is it a carrot you need, rather than a stick?"

There was a witty remark to be made comparing the relative sizes and shapes of carrots and sticks, but Jack paused to consider the motives behind Norrington's apparent flirtation. James wanted Elizabeth and likely Will. Will wanted Elizabeth and likely James. Hector doubtless wanted Elizabeth, would perhaps not have refused either James or Will, but having a ship was not the only leverage necessary there. Elizabeth no doubt wanted everything -- was that not, at the core, true of all women? -- though at the moment she was burdened by Turner's child.

It was all fairly straightforward, really -- accept Elizabeth's terms, despite Hector's treachery, sail with the _Pearl_ to Florida and quite possibly enjoy the favors of several attractive partners -- but one thing still needled at Jack's conscience, or perhaps the sense that always told him when to expect a storm on a perfectly calm sea. "What I can't figure out, mate, is how Calypso figures in," he said to James. "She swore eternal fury upon us all. Why bring you back as a favor to Elizabeth or Will or any of us?"

He wasn't really expecting an answer, but Elizabeth spoke. "Davy Jones is trapped in his own Locker, isn't he?" she asked. "Calypso was able to help you escape only because she traveled with Barbossa and myself. Even though a goddess, perhaps she is unable to call him back from that endless shore. I wonder whether possession of the Locker changes hands along with the captaincy of the _Flying Dutchman_."

Jack shrugged. What did he really know of the mysteries of such as Calypso? But... "It would make sense," he allowed. "If she wants Jones for herself, still -- the ways of women being unfathomable, and of goddesses more than any -- it might be that she needs Will's aid to reach him." He reached for the flask in the pocket of his coat. Empty.

"What say we find a likely tavern and have a drink to seal our bargain?" Elizabeth gave him a shrewd look. "If, that is, we have one? You provide the chart, we your protection, Barbossa the ship -- and all of us to gain the reward. Better to consider the carrot, as James put it, than dwell on a stick that should be unnecessary between acquaintances of our standing."

"Aye." Jack gestured away from the docks. "My funds are running a bit shy at the present, so if you're willing...?"

Norrington gave a snort, and Elizabeth glared at him. "She's willing. Or if she isn't, I am. Not much use for gold and silver at sea, so Will gave me what he had."

There was a note in his voice that Jack recognized. James had almost certainly taken more than coin from young Will Turner... and was implying that he'd at least consider the same with Jack. Whether his hint that Elizabeth might do so as well was true remained to be proven.


	5. Chapter 5

"This is not the bargain that I struck with you, Miss Swann," Hector Barbossa said pleasantly.

"Captain Swann," Elizabeth, Jack, and James snapped simultaneously. With a toss of her hair, Elizabeth continued, "And King of the Brethren Court, as I am certain you recall..."

"And I am certain _you_ recall that the court's not a-meetin' at present. We agreed that you would persuade Sparrow here to provide the charts in exchange for passage for him and yourself on _my ship_." Hector paused to let the words sink in. "Out of the goodness of my heart, I am willing to allow the former Admiral here to travel with us, provided he makes himself useful and takes the night watch. But Jack sails as a passenger only."

"This being _my_ ship," Jack said just as pleasantly, "what say we let the crew decide who commands the _Pearl_?"

"Out of the question." Hector showed his teeth, which he knew to be yellowed and unpleasant but no worse than Jack's. Was it being dead that had given James Norrington such an even white set, or did he get his teeth from the same money and breeding had made him a Royal Navy captain at such a young age? "You won't take command, Jack, not even for five minutes."

"Worried that they won't follow you any longer, since you failed to keep the chart and have had to come back for me to obtain it?" Jack's smile was sharp, the gold glinting between his lips.

"Not at all. They've mutinied against you twice; what cause have I for concern?"

"Gentlemen," Elizabeth interrupted. "I believe what all of us want most is to find the Water of Life."

"Hear, hear," murmured Norrington.

"Jack. A moment." She pulled him aside, her expression intent as she whispered and gesticulated. Hector didn't bother to try to hear what it was she said; it was clear that her intention was to convince Jack to accept Barbossa as captain of the _Pearl_ , at least for the time being.

"The night watch, you said?" Norrington interrupted his thoughts. "Are you certain that you wish to entrust a former royal officer with that task?"

Hector regarded him steadily. "Are you saying that you would betray your own honor? Not what I would expect from a man of your former position."

"I have betrayed it before," said Norrington, and his eyes flickered to the pair still arguing quietly a few yards away. "But for the moment, I take orders from my captain. If she places me under your command, I will accept that." He seemed unaware of how much he had given away with that statement.

"What about Sparrow?" Hector asked him in a low voice, watching Jack and Elizabeth waving their arms at one another. "That's the man who sold his soul to Davy Jones in exchange for the ship on which ye sit. He would sell us all to the Spaniards to have the Fountain of Youth for himself."

"Are you not the man who twice led a mutiny against him?" Norrington showed his white, even teeth. "For reasons that defy my comprehension, Elizabeth believes that each of you can be trusted within certain limits. And myself as well. Perhaps she believes that death has altered our priorities."

Despite his own cracked teeth, Hector smiled back. He decided that he liked James Norrington, despite his past in the Royal Navy and having sold _his_ soul to Cutler Beckett. Calypso had not required Barbossa's soul to bring him back from the dead, so he had never had to learn whether or for what he might sell it.

"Sparrow!" he barked. "Stop your bellyaching, and you and the Admiral here can split duties in the middle watch."

Rather to Hector's surprise, Jack proved to be cooperative... well, for Jack Sparrow. They reached an agreement whereby Elizabeth -- or Captain Swann, as she insisted on being called in front of the crew, although Barbossa thought of her privately as Mistress Turner -- kept the chart on her person, although all four of them looked on as Jack shifted the rings and calculated the course they should take. Hector, however, made sure he was the one at the wheel.

Jack complained about having the middle watch, of course, but midnight to four was light duty even if it broke up one's sleep uncomfortably, and with Norrington sharing the duties, Hector could be relatively certain that nothing untoward would happen. With regard to his ship, that was. He learned from Pintel that Elizabeth rose during that watch as well, and wondered just what those three were doing... Pintel had been too drunk to report accurately.

"Would you have any apples on board, Captain Barbossa?"

Looking around quickly, he saw Norrington grinning at him. "Why d'ye ask for apples?"

"Captain Swann is craving something a bit fresher than ship's bread and fish stew. She asked me to request an apple of you, should you have any to spare."

"She didn't discover the barrelful in the hold last night?" Let the man be aware that Hector knew the three of them had been conferring, or whatever it was.

"I believe she may have been... distracted."

Now that did amuse Hector. "I see. Distracted by yourself, Mister Norrington? I think not. You are still a dead man, and I know too well what a dead man can and cannot do with a woman."

Norrington wasn't in the least offended. He grinned widely. "Captain Barbossa, I see that like so many men, you make the mistake of believing that a woman's only interest comes from how you wield your sword."

It had been so long since Barbossa had had a woman, for pleasure or for pay, that he had no quick retort. Moreover, if Elizabeth had not been cavorting with James Norrington, that likely meant that the onetime admiral had served as lookout while Elizabeth entertained herself with Jack. Hector knew enough of Jack Sparrow's history with women that he did not like to think of a pregnant woman putting herself at such risk.

"Tell Captain Swann that she is welcome to an apple, if she will keep herself clean and free from disease," he told Norrington.

Norrington looked at him quizzically. "Dead men carry no plagues," he said. "Nor does Sparrow."

It surprised Hector to find himself so riled. "Then that woman _was_ carrying on with him!"

"Not precisely. She was merely a spectator. Surely the Navy's ban on sodomy isn't enforced on this ship?"

Hector closed his mouth hard when he realized it had fallen open. That was a coupling he hadn't counted on. Not that one could count on anything around Sparrow... or, apparently, Elizabeth, who seemed to delight in unpredictability even more than most females. "No," he allowed. "It isn't. Tell me though, Mister Norrington, as I've always been curious. In your own experience, does that Navy ban work?"

"Depends on the captain." Norrington shrugged, meeting Hector's eyes squarely. "Some captains I've been under had their men hold to it... others held their men."

Somehow it pleased Hector to know that. "But you cannot enjoy it, surely," he insisted. "Not in your condition."

"My condition is not the same as yours was," pointed out Norrington. "Make no assumptions, sir." He inclined his head. "I'll let Captain Swann know that you've given her permission to have an apple."

Hector found himself watching James Norrington's fine form as he walked away. Dead or not, the former admiral cut a dashing figure, and if he enjoyed himself with Jack Sparrow, well, there was probably no act to which he was averse, if one could believe the things Jack's whores had said about him.

Hector had generally preferred women, but he'd also been a pirate for most of his life. He'd learned to gather silver where there was no gold to be had. And now he knew where Jack, James, and Elizabeth would likely be found in the darkest hour of the night.


	6. Chapter 6

"Yes, oh, yes, yes, YES!"

Elizabeth's shouts were loud enough to wake the crew in their hammocks a deck above. In fact, those fools Pintel and Ragetti were probably peering through a hole in the boards, trying to watch, though there was scarcely enough light for James to see Elizabeth's face mere inches away from his own. It was likely that Sparrow couldn't see her face at all. But it was also likely that Sparrow wasn't trying to look beyond the light brown nest of hair that was currently level with his eyes.

"And I thought you didn't enjoy eating fish," James said to him with some amusement.

"Don't be vulgar," panted Elizabeth, though from her glowing face and parted lips, she didn't much care what jokes James made about her anatomy. Her belly was only just beginning to grow round. James slid a hand over it, rubbing his prick against her hip.

"Give the lady a moment to recover," said Jack from between her legs, licking his lips.

"You're just jealous that I got here first," James said as Elizabeth's hand groped for him.

"First?" Jack chuckled. "The blacksmith preceded us both, after all, did he not?"

James didn't bother to answer, too distracted by Elizabeth's touch. Barbossa might have found himself impotent from the curse of the Aztec gold, living his half-life, but James's resurrection had been complete. The thought crossed his mind that if this quest for the Fountain of Youth were successful, he would have ten years -- well, nine -- with Elizabeth. At the moment, however, he would not press for more than she offered, and if he wondered where she had learned the skills she was presently employing on him, he knew better than to ask.

In the near-dark all other senses were sharpened. Suddenly Jack sat up and reached for the sword he'd laid aside earlier, joking that he'd find more satisfaction with a different blade. "Who's there?"

"Who d'ye think?" Footsteps sounded across the wooden planks, threading around the bales, barrels, and crates that were piled in the hold. "A good captain always knows what is going on amongst his crew, Jack. A lesson worth learning." Barbossa lifted the lantern he carried, illuminating the nest the three of them had made.

Though James expected Elizabeth to reach for her discarded garments to cover herself, she stayed where she was. In the light cast by the flame, James could see clearly her firm pink nipples as well as the dampness smeared across her thighs and the rose between them. Jack appeared momentarily to be too busy looking at Elizabeth to assess the threat Barbossa represented, though perhaps Jack knew that Barbossa would be equally distracted. In that instant, James was on his feet, holding his sword to Barbossa's throat.

"It's _my_ crew, mate," Jack reminded Barbossa, aiming his sword at the pirate's neck as well.

Barbossa had not taken his eyes from Elizabeth. "And these are my apples you've been eating," he said, gesturing at the scattered cores. "I offered just one to Captain Swann, but I doubt she ate all of these by herself."

"We'll pay you in gold when we make landfall," Elizabeth said, tossing her hair defiantly.

"A fair offer, but gold is not the coin in which I choose to be paid."

James and Jack both pressed their swords closer. "Oh, for heaven's sake," protested Elizabeth. "I hardly think he's here to rape me."

"I'd not lay a hand on another captain's wife," agreed Barbossa, his gold tooth flashing in the lantern light when he grinned. "Nor," the pirate turned to Jack, "a subordinate crewmember." Jack started to protest, but his words died out as Barbossa continued, "But you, Norrington... you're neither crew nor promised to another."

"Not in that sense, no," James admitted, thinking rapidly. They could not keep Barbossa at sword's point forever. He looked the man up and down as best he could in the close quarters and dim light; Barbossa was, he conceded privately, not unattractive in his own fashion. James had accepted Will Turner's offer -- he suspected Elizabeth, and almost certainly Jack, had guessed at that, though he had not said so openly -- and Barbossa likely had greater experience at this sort of swordplay than Will.

"Well, then?" Barbossa's eyes met James's, unblinking even when Jack pressed the blade closer against his throat.

"Precisely how did you desire to receive your payment?" James licked his lips, hoping the pirate would take it for anticipation instead of apprehension. He would do what he must, but he preferred to know whether he was to pay in guineas or pistoles.

Barbossa smiled. "I prefer to _receive_. He flicked a glance downward at James's exposed member. "And it would appear that you are ready to give."

Jack lowered his sword and raised his eyebrows at James, who ignored him. Elizabeth merely looked intrigued, devil take it.

"Lamp oil?" asked James coolly, sheathing his sword as well.

"You have a passing familiarity with the necessities, then," Barbossa said, and handed the lantern to Elizabeth.


	7. Chapter 7

Elizabeth was ashamed to admit that one of the reasons she'd preferred Will Turner to James Norrington had been her suspicion that Norrington might be dull as a lover. His genteel kisses had never excited her, and even after he had shocked her, first by throwing his life away on drink, then by betraying them all and going to work for Beckett, she had seen little to suggest that he might have a secret gift for lovemaking.

Having watched him with Jack, however, and watching him with Barbossa -- and knowing as well that he had been with Will -- she had to admit that she had clearly misjudged James. Where Will had been a bit cautious with her, particularly their first time, which she knew had been his first too, James was quite commanding and rather daring. Elizabeth would not have thought to put her mouth where James put his on Barbossa, not even after teasing the spot with a mostly-eaten apple core. She could hear herself moaning as she watched.

"Enjoying yourself?" Barbossa asked her with a toothy grin, his voice more gravelly than usual. "He'll be needing that oil soon."

"Are _you_ enjoying yourself?" she asked him, just as breathless. "Or do you prefer women?"

"He's been a pirate all his life," James cut in, reaching to take the lantern. "I imagine the captain is accustomed to finding pleasure where he may."

Jack pressed against Elizabeth's hip, his prick quite hard. "I can testify that the captain-in-name-only is not entirely discriminating," he panted.

"Don't listen to Jack --" Barbossa cut himself off to groan as James pushed a finger inside him. "I'm very discriminating. I've never taken a woman who didn't consent."

"'Consent' involving compensation for her trouble, I suspect," said James, smiling triumphantly at Elizabeth. She couldn't quite see what his fingers were doing but she could tell from Barbossa's expression that he must have had some skill at it.

"Jack," she said, never taking her eyes off Barbossa's. "Can you get underneath me?"

Jack moved very willingly, letting Elizabeth lift up so he could slide flat on the deck and allow her to settle above him. His prick pressed between her buttocks, pushing them up.

"What are you doing?" James asked her, looking down with the same hungry look Barbossa wore.

"Move forward, Jack," she ordered. "James, surely you won't mind if I give Barbossa a means to muffle his groans?"

"You mean I don't have the privilege of entering the gates of heaven?" Jack asked in mock-complaint.

"I have something else in mind," Elizabeth told him, reaching to position his prick so that the head nestled between her nether lips, nudging the most sensitive spot from behind. She lifted her chest with a challenging smirk at Barbossa. "Can you satisfy us both at once, while James satisfies you?"

Elizabeth took what she knew to be an unseemly delight in seeing astonishment in both Barbossa's and James's expressions, but that was short-lived, for Barbossa quickly bent over before her. His backside was raised; James in turn knelt behind him, still watching Elizabeth.

"Now then," Elizabeth smiled sweetly and tapped Barbossa on the head, "I believe you should prepare to be boarded."

Barbossa muttered something incomprehensible against Elizabeth, but his tongue flickered out to tease her.

"Don't forget Jack," she reminded him, bracing her hands against the wooden boards on either side of Jack's hips. She felt Barbossa's mouth press more firmly as James entered him.

Although it was Barbossa into whom he thrust, it was Elizabeth on whom James's eyes remained fixed, and she returned his avid gaze, guessing that he imagined herself directly beneath him. Well, and in a way he was not wrong; each movement he made affected her. James and Will... who had swived whom, Elizabeth wondered, or had they taken turns? The very thought made her quiver almost as much as the caresses of Barbossa's tongue or the strokes of Jack's prick against her nub.

"Watch those rotten teeth, Hector," Jack muttered, though Elizabeth suspected that the token protest was mostly for her benefit. She could feel Jack trembling beneath her and his prick was quite stiff as it slid between her lips. Surely Jack realized by now that she thought no less of a man for enjoying pleasure with other men?

She stretched out her leg until it bumped Barbossa's thigh, wriggling her toes against it, and felt him groan against her.

"Give Captain Barbossa a hand, James," she commanded.

Barbossa's head raised a bit, making her whimper. Even in the dim light she could see that his lips were glistening and his beard was wet. "Since we are all equals here, you should call me Hector," he said.

"I once outranked you all," James reminded them, sounding rather breathless as he bent over Barbossa's back.

Elizabeth felt the pirate shudder as the onetime admiral's hand closed around his prick. "And I was King." She let her head fall back against Jack's shoulder as his prick moved against her, twitching when Barbossa's tongue made contact once more. "Oh, that's good... Hector." From the flare of James's nostrils, she knew that she had made him jealous. Well, let him be: they could none of them afford to become attached and pair off. "Fuck him harder, James."

"Yes, Your Majesty." There was mockery in James's voice, but only hunger in his eyes as he sped up his thrusts. Barbossa's tongue was moving feverishly across Elizabeth's center, letting Jack thrust against it, and she could feel Jack's belly tensing beneath her with each movement.

He was the first to come, hot against her, the sharp smell cutting through the mustiness of damp wood. Barbossa grunted but kept licking Elizabeth; she was on a slow rise herself again, having achieved a climax once already this night under Jack's tongue. She would have to try James next, she thought dreamily. There was no question in her mind that he would agree.

Jack wriggled himself back away from Barbossa's tongue, his prick beginning to soften, nestling between her buttocks. His hands cupped her breasts and teased her nipples to points. "Breeding suits you," he murmured into her ear. "You fill out a bodice nicely now."

Elizabeth elbowed Jack in the ribs. "Sorry," she said sweetly.

Above her James rolled his eyes. She smiled, knowing that he understood her feelings. It was pleasant to be better-endowed than usual, and she enjoyed having the men appreciate her enhanced charms, but Jack's compliment had been two-edged, or so she thought. Perhaps not, but knowing Jack, most likely so.

The slap of flesh on flesh quickened again as James pounded yet faster into Barbossa, whose mouth on Elizabeth sped up to match. Her breath came in pants, a keen rising in her throat. Yet it was Barbossa who groaned first, rearing back and away from her, almost knocking his head against James's jaw. His prick quivered and spat out its creamy spunk onto the wooden floor of the hold, a claim to possession... if Jack had not done so before him.

Elizabeth was left desperate, gasping on the brink of orgasm. "James!" she appealed to him. She knew he was in no position to reach her, with his prick buried in Barbossa, and Barbossa, panting, glanced at her with amusement.

"The admiral is a bit busy," Jack murmured in her ear, his hand moving down her belly and between her legs. "If you will allow me..."

Both Barbossa and Norrington were watching avidly, the one still trying to catch his breath, the other grunting with exertion as he thrust. Apart from his teeth, thought Elizabeth, Barbossa could be surprisingly attractive, while James, who had always before compared unfavorably with both Will and Jack -- at first too prim and proper, then later too much of a wretched drunk, still later unpleasantly stuffed into a uniform that suited him ill -- finally appeared comfortable in his own skin, ironic though it was that it had taken death to make him so.

"Please," Elizabeth whimpered to all three of them, though it was only Jack whose hand slid down, expertly parting the wet folds. Two fingers pushed inside her while his thumb toyed with the sensitive flesh just above the entrance.

"Elizabeth," groaned James as he slammed into Barbossa hard enough to send the older man sprawling. She had only time to see the surprise on Hector's face and the pleasure sweeping across James's before Jack's nimble fingers made her forget everything but the delight convulsing her loins.

Barbossa's voice brought her back to herself. "Enough, Norrington," he grunted, crawling forward, presumably unlancing himself from James's prick. His mouth brushed Elizabeth's thigh, and when she glanced down she realized that that had been no accident. Jack's fingers slipped out of her with a soft, wet noise, and with a lecherous grin up at the two of them, Barbossa flicked out his tongue, licking them clean.

"Pirate," said Jack with more approval than she'd ever heard him use in regard to Barbossa.

"Shouldn't one of you be on watch?" asked James, who still sounded winded, as well as slightly irritated.

Reluctantly, Barbossa sat up. "You're with me, Jack. I won't have you eating my apples while I can't enjoy them." He gave Elizabeth a toothy smile. "I trust the admiral here will keep the lady comfortable."


	8. Chapter 8

Jack leaned against the rail, a posture designed to irritate his erstwhile first mate. As expected, Barbossa scowled at him.

"It's the middle watch."

"So?"

"You're on duty," Barbossa snapped. "That was the agreement."

Jack smiled. "My agreement with you was that I split the watch with Norrington, and my agreement with _him_ was that he take the first half of it each night. It is just after midnight, and therefore his watch. You were the one who told him to remain with Captain Swann, thereby implicitly taking his duty upon yourself."

Barbossa swore, long and fluently.

"I will, however, keep you company for the next two hours," Jack added. "We might discuss ways and means. The Water of Life, the Fountain of Youth, whatever you choose to call it -- I imagine the supply is not inexhaustible. If there is not enough for the four of us, plus Will Turner, then...?" He let his voice trail off on an upward note.

"Go on," Barbossa said. "I take it that we need not figure the crew into this."

Jack shrugged negligently. "Perhaps the Fountain will gush barrelsful by the minute, and there will be plenty for all. Contingency plans are never superfluous, however."

Barbossa nodded shortly, eyes narrowed. "That being the case, why ask me? You owe no debt to Turner, and Norrington tried to kill you more than once. We've both seen that in a tempest, he'll look out only for himself. I should think ye'd try to take what you can for _your_ self, then hope that my unnatural resurrection doesn't preclude a natural death, in which case, there'd be no stopping you from taking _my_ ship."

Hector patted the mast for emphasis. Watching him, Jack nodded. "It is true that your absence would simplify the matter of my captaincy of the _Black Pearl_."

Jack waited for Barbossa's splutter of outrage to subside before continuing. He had, after all, just recently been reminded that the man had quite a talented tongue.

"Like you, I don't trust Norrington, though I believe that he will honor whatever agreement he made with Elizabeth and William... well, with Elizabeth, at least." Jack had little doubt that, given the opportunity, James Norrington would leave Turner alone forever on the seas between the worlds while spending the rest of his own days enjoying Elizabeth's company. Certainly, Barbossa believed the same. "Isn't that why you left them alone together? To encourage their... alliance?"

"Norrington has demonstrated more than once that he's a fool. I don't fool myself that _my_ charms will keep him leashed, but hers will." Barbossa stretched, grimacing, and Jack hid a smile at the thought of the pounding that James had given him. "But you haven't answered my question. Why would you want or expect me to be your ally?"

"You and I are the ones who between us can reach the Fountain," Jack reminded him. "I possess the chart, and you -- for now -- the _Pearl_."

Barbossa eyed him narrowly. "And what of Norrington and the Turners?"

"What of them?" Jack shrugged. "We both want the Water of Life. So do they, but they're not necessary to reach it, are they?"

"Aye." Barbossa snorted. "Death didn't change you much, I've noticed."

"Nor you," said Jack. He yawned and scratched himself, checking for the chart that he'd tucked carefully into his jacket. Still there. He wouldn't have put it past Elizabeth to take it back from him. Norrington still retained too much of the habits of a naval officer to stoop to petty theft... although in this instance it would not be petty at all. A guide to the Fountain of Youth was more valuable than gold or gems.

"What is it that you propose then, precisely?" Barbossa took out his knife and began to pare his fingernails.

"Don't cut yourself," Jack told him, advice that elicited the sneer it deserved. "Until we locate the Fountain and determine whether its bounty is sufficient for all, nothing need change. If, once we find it, it appears that there is not enough of the _aqua vita_ for everyone -- why, then, you will arrange for the others to be... permanently distracted, shall we say? I'm sure that you can rely on your crew for such actions. And the two of us can slip away, back to the _Pearl_ , prize in hand. In bottle, rather."

"You would maroon a pregnant woman in the wilds of Florida?" asked Barbossa. Jack noticed that he was scowling.

"I believe that we can trust her onetime fiancé to protect her." Not that Jack believed for one moment that Elizabeth would need protecting -- it was more likely that she would have to save Norrington from whatever mess his arrogance put them in. She'd not be lonely with James at her side. That was not, however, why he had left the two of them below and agreed to accompany Barbossa to the watch. "Do you think me wrong?" he asked, as if it were a matter of no concern to him. "Would a fearsome pirate like yourself refuse to maroon a pregnant woman, even if it meant giving up the Water of Life?"

Before laughing loudly Barbossa hesitated, only for a moment, but that was long enough to confirm the answer that Jack already suspected. Hector wouldn't be abandoning Elizabeth unless circumstances were dire indeed. That meant that Jack could use the lady to take back the _Pearl_. If he waited for the opportune moment, he could get away with the ship and the precious water both. And Norrington wouldn't be the only protector left behind to shepherd Elizabeth through her exile.


	9. Chapter 9

The smell of seawater filled the hold of the _Black Pearl_. Normally, this would have been a cause for concern for the entire ship. At present, however, it was of concern only to one man.

"Calypso?" inquired James Norrington.

Hundreds of crabs surrounded him, their pincers clacking as they swarmed. Gradually they took on the shape of a woman. Instinctively, Norrington reached for his sword. At least Elizabeth was safe -- she was asleep in a cabin on the deck above, though in all likelihood not alone. He knew full well that both Sparrow and Barbossa had been sneaking in to see her. It wasn't possible for James to keep them both fully occupied all the time.

"Why have you come?" he demanded of the sea goddess as crabs scuttled over his feet.

"Your captain want to see you," she announced in her reverberating voice. For a moment James thought she meant Barbossa and was about to object that he did not serve the pirate when he realized whom she did mean.

"Does Will Turner propose that I leave this ship, and his wife defenseless, during the days and weeks that it will take me to reach him?"

"Not days or weeks," Calypso half-crooned, half-growled. "Only a moment, for a dead man."

The crabs were climbing up his legs, covering his body. "I don't want --" he objected sharply.

"Him made you a bargain, James Norrington," the implacable voice reminded him as sharp claws pressed against his chest, his neck. He was going to drown in crabs. "When your master summons, you will go."

James didn't dare to cry out in protest as the crabs covered his mouth. He closed his eyes and was swallowed by the darkness. When next he dared to open them, he was standing in the strange twilight of the world beyond the world, on the deck of a ship that did not sway with the tides.

"How is Elizabeth? And how goes your quest?" demanded Will Turner.

James shook a stray crab from his sleeve. It waved its eyestalks at him and scuttled off.

"She bears your child," he said flatly. Though it might alter the terms of their accord, Turner had best know that at once; if James kept it from him, once he did find out, he would never trust James again. "She is well, though. Blooming, I should say."

Will's face went through a remarkable variety of expressions in a few seconds, before settling into wonder. "Elizabeth is pregnant?"

"Yes." James took a breath. "It hasn't slowed her as yet. If anything she is more high-handed and stubborn than ever. She had the same notion that you did about the Water of Life. Indeed, she had taken steps to locate Sparrow, who had stolen the chart from Barbossa, before I found her. She made a deal with Barbossa that if she could provide Sparrow and the chart, he would provide the services of the _Black Pearl_ to take them to Florida."

"And did she find Sparrow?" Will folded his arms. Well, James knew that Will was aware that Elizabeth found the pirate attractive.

"Together we did," said James smoothly, "and convinced him that he would do better working with us than alone. With three, one of us could always be awake to guard the chart, for instance."

"For instance," Will repeated. "Was other... leverage... offered or required?"

"Nothing that you didn't offer me." James met Will's hot eyes coolly. "You said that you didn't require Elizabeth to be faithful in body. Do you truly want to know whether or not she has been?"

"Yes. No!" Will paced the deck. "No. I want her to be safe, more than anything. I can't look out for her myself; I trust you to put her welfare before your own, whatever that might require."

"All right, then." James would have been prepared to admit what he had done with Elizabeth, perhaps what Sparrow had done, but best for Will to be unaware of Barbossa's role, at least for the time being. "We are en route to Florida even now, and should make landfall soon. After that I imagine there will be some tedious trekking through jungle before we locate the Fountain, and I fully expect attempts at treachery along the way by Sparrow, Barbossa, or both. They _are_ pirates, after all."

"So is Elizabeth," Will reminded him.

"And so are _you_ , Turner. Did you have the sea goddess abduct me here only to inquire about Elizabeth's health?"

"Not just hers." Will waved to his father, who had been watching them at a distance from behind the _Dutchman_ 's wheel. "Why don't you come below with me, and you can tell me about your afterlife. Are you feeling quite your old self?"

"All the parts seem to work on land as well as at sea," James reported as he followed Will to the great cabin.

"Did Jack test them for you?"

There was a bit of sourness in Will's voice. James wondered which of them he envied. "Jack and Hector both," he confessed, watching Will's eyes widen. "What Barbossa lacks in grooming, he makes up for in other ways. I'd be happy to demonstrate."

"Really," drawled Will, looking James over speculatively as James tugged at his breeches.

An hour later, James had confirmed that he'd told Will the truth. While Turner had youth and good looks in his favor, and Sparrow could claim both enthusiasm and inventiveness, Barbossa had a kind of animal intensity that was entirely his own.


	10. Chapter 10

"...but the odds seemed better against the sea monster than the fleet, so I reefed the sails in, turned us around, and led the entire armada straight into its jaws..."

Elizabeth was laughing, her hair gleaming like a halo about her face despite the apple in her hand, when the temporary bulkhead slid aside. "Jack," demanded Hector very crossly. "What are you doing here? It's your watch."

"It is not," replied Jack, striding over to the pile of blankets upon which Elizabeth was sprawled and flopping down at her side. "It is Norrington's watch. But _he_ is nowhere to be found."

"Nowhere to be found?" Elizabeth's good mood vanished. Sitting up, she set the half-eaten apple aside. "Where could he be, then?"

"In a place, I fear, where none of us can follow." Jack was making a rather odd face, and not a happy one. As Hector and Elizabeth both watched, he thrust a hand into his breeches and pulled out a crab, which dropped to the deck and quickly scurried away. "Our friend the admiral is with Calypso, if I'm not mistaken." Wrinkling his nose, Jack gave a sniff for emphasis. "Perhaps she's taken him back to Captain Turner's ship."

Now Elizabeth was scowling. "It seems unfair to me that because I have not had the fortune ever to have been dead, like all three of you, I cannot see my husband while James can."

Hector had been having a perfectly delightful evening regaling Elizabeth with sea stories before Jack's intrusion. He glared, though Jack only cocked an eyebrow at him in return.

"I believe there may be a larger concern, love," Jack said to Elizabeth, though his eyes remained on Hector. "There must be some reason for Calypso to be meddling."

"Perhaps she wants us to find the Water of Life before the bloody Spaniards get back to it," Hector snapped.

Elizabeth shook her head. "A sea goddess wouldn't care whether the flag flying over it were Spanish or English. Or pirate, for that matter." Her brow furrowed. "I wonder if it has something to do with her lost love at the bottom of the sea."

Jack raised his eyebrow further, his lips twitching. "You women do devote a great deal of your energies to love," he observed.

"And you believe that you men are immune?" asked Elizabeth sharply.

"Perhaps only _some_ men. What do you think, Hector?"

Hector considered. "I am inclined to agree with the lady. Under the right circumstances, any man might be susceptible to love's blandishments."

"Davy Jones, for instance. He was so swayed by love for Calypso, and so distraught over her apparent indifference, that he was willing to carve his own heart from his chest to destroy that emotion," added Elizabeth, glaring at Jack. "But that is beside the point."

"And what _is_ the point, my dear Captain Swann?" Without asking permission, Jack plucked an apple from the bowl and crunched into it. Hector glared at him.

"As you said. Why would Calypso meddle in our search for the Fountain of Youth? It was her doing that brought James into it. You two were already both planning to locate the Water of Life, and so was I. What is Calypso's goal?"

"How can we possibly know what that aqueous demi-goddess wants?" Hector sniffed and bit into his own apple. He still had not tired of them, not after the best part of a decade deprived of the delights of the comestible. Swallowing, he added, "Does it matter?"

"I think it might," said Jack. "As Tia Dalma she was artful, if not outright deceitful, and now, with her full powers restored? Underestimating Calypso could be fatal. Captain Swann may be right in guessing that her interest has something to do with Jones."

Elizabeth leaned forward. "What _is_ the Water of Life, after all? That is, what are its properties?"

Hector cocked his head. "The legends say that it restores youth and health."

"But not life," pressed Elizabeth.

"No," Jack agreed. "At least, not that I've heard tell. None of the stories claim that the Water of Life will restore the dead."

"I sit here with evidence before my eyes that Calypso _can_ restore the dead." Elizabeth put a hand beneath Hector's chin, lifting it. He tried not to shiver, not with Jack watching. "Yet she could not raise Jack from Davy Jones's Locker. She needed a ship to do that."

"I have a ship," said Jack blandly, gesturing around. Before Hector could object, Jack added, "So does your husband."

"Of course!" exclaimed Elizabeth. "The _Dutchman_ can reach the Locker. Will wouldn't even have to get lost, since he already sails the seas beyond this world. But then what would Calypso need with any of us?"

"What do you suppose young William would say, love, if he was asked to save the man who murdered him and kept him from your side?"

Hector knew what _he_ would say to the sea goddess if she tried to meddle in Elizabeth's affairs. He'd more than once regretted agreeing to perform the hasty ceremony that had joined Elizabeth and Will in holy matrimony, though he wasn't sure it was strictly legal, particularly since _till death do you part_ had so little relevance now. "That sea-witch is using us," he snarled.

"But don't you see, this is good news, at least at the moment." Elizabeth was smiling. "It's clear that Calypso will want us to succeed in reaching the Fountain -- no tempests, no gales. And the Fountain itself is landlocked. Once we're on shore, and once we know what she's up to with James, we'll be in a better position to plan any negotiation with her."

Jack cast a speculative look over Elizabeth. "You're the only one of us in whom Norrington is likely to confide," he pointed out. "I feel quite sure that you can convince him to tell you anything he won't tell the rest of us."

Elizabeth didn't object, yet Hector didn't like Jack speaking to the lady that way, as if she were one of his whores and not every bit the pirate that Jack was. "Enough," he barked, snatching the apple core out of Jack's hand. "Since Norrington isn't here, Sparrow, you should be on deck. He can take your watch when he returns."

Something odd flickered across Jack's face as he looked from Elizabeth to Hector -- something like triumph rather than the complaint that Hector had expected. But at least Jack hauled himself to his feet. "Very well," he said. Hector supposed it was the probability that Jack would be the first to speak to Norrington that had made him so agreeable.

Once Jack had gone, Elizabeth settled back down on Hector's pillows, reaching for another apple. "You were going to tell me about raiding the treasure fleet?" she reminded him, eyes gleaming.

"That's right." Settling back on one elbow, Hector smiled at her. "We'd sailed from Tunis..."


	11. Chapter 11

"Something's not right with that crab woman," said Bootstrap Bill to his son.

Will knew that, after his years serving Davy Jones, his father would never trust any being that was more sea creature than human. "She's a sea goddess who was trapped in mortal form," he reminded Bill. "She hasn't forgotten. Or forgiven."

"Perhaps, but perhaps it's more than that."

"What do you think it is, then?" Will was careful to keep his expression calm and his eyes from glancing at the cabin where James lay sprawled, asleep on the bed they'd shared, waiting until Calypso might return him to the _Pearl_. No doubt Bill knew of that liaison, but there was no need to emphasize it.

"She can raise the dead, can she not?" Bill began to tick off numbers on his fingers. "She brought back that Captain Barbossa. And Sparrow. And that Royal Navy fellow yonder."

" _I_ brought back Norrington, to this ship anyhow. And Sparrow's retrieval required rather more than just Calypso's magic," Will reminded him. "We had to go beyond World's End to bring him back."

"Ah, but she was not the goddess then, was she?" said Bill triumphantly. "It stands to reason that as a woman her powers were limited. That was the whole purpose of trapping her in mortal form."

"So?"

"So, what is her purpose? What need does she have of you, who captains the _Dutchman_ , or Norrington, who is slated to follow you in that capacity? I think she must want you under obligation to her... but I cannot puzzle out why, and I fear for you." Bill gave Will a crooked smile. "You _are_ my son, my only living kin, as well as my captain."

Will walked to the rail and looked out over the dark waters, far less crowded now with the souls of the dead than they had been, since unlike Jones he had been carrying out his appointed task with due diligence. "You may be right. Let us see if we can puzzle it out together -- and perhaps Norrington might have ideas as well. I'll fetch him."

James's breath came calm and easy, his face slack in sleep but still bearing the lines that marked him as a man of power and integrity. Will shook his shoulder.

"James. There is something we must discuss."

"What?" James sat up, reaching for a sword that was not there. "Is it Elizabeth?"

Will crushed the pangs of jealousy that smote him. It was not James's doing that he, not Will, could see Elizabeth, touch her... Will would not let himself think further than that. "No. It's Calypso. My father thinks there is something fishy about her actions."

James grinned. "Fishy, yes." He reached for his shoes; he had slept in his clothes, not knowing when he would have to leave.

"Not funny." But it was. Will smiled back, grateful even in his disquiet for James's attempt at lightening his mood. "If the three of us discuss the matter, perhaps we can determine what her aims are, whether we can go along with them, and what steps we might take if not."

Nodding, James finished dressing, and Will reached to help him straighten his stockings. While Elizabeth had been engaged to Commodore Norrington, Will had never allowed himself to consider the question of whether the man might be considered handsome; he had been too filled with resentment. Now that Elizabeth was his wife, and James in his debt, he could admit that Norrington was indeed both dashing and distinguished. Straightening, Will asked him, "This isn't all too strange for you? Being with me after sailing with her?"

James tilted his head to the side, considering, then gave Will an unexpectedly warm smile. "'Strange' doesn't come close to describing it," he admitted. "To a very great degree, I am simply happy to be alive. I'm afraid that, like you, I am jealous of every man who looks at Elizabeth, but at the same time, I would gladly set aside my own wishes to protect her. And I must confess that I have learned to enjoy some things I thought at first I would do only out of necessity."

Will laughed softly, nodding in understanding. "Death has a way of changing a man's perspective," he agreed. "But Sparrow _and_ Barbossa, really? Not at the same time?"

"I would not have planned it that way, but Barbossa left us no choice." At James's somewhat shy smile, Will laughed again. The other man sobered quickly, however. "I don't fool myself that my charms have overwhelmed either of them. Nor that they follow Elizabeth out of unrequited love, though I do think Hector has a soft spot for her." Will knew he must have looked repelled, for James quickly added, "Which I've no doubt she will use for her own benefit, and yours. Unlike Sparrow, he bears her no ill will for his death."

In the world of Will's youth, that statement would have sounded completely mad. His beautiful young wife -- his beautiful young _pregnant_ wife -- had a dead husband and three dead companions, all vying for the legendary water that might offer some or all of them restoration.

"About Calypso," said James, bringing Will back to the present. "I have a theory, but I don't think you're going to like it."

"Come on deck and tell it to my father as well." Will stole a kiss before he led James up, finding Bill at the wheel of the _Flying Dutchman_. "Mister Norrington has a guess about why the sea goddess has meddled in our plans. I'm afraid he shares your fear that it isn't out of the goodness of her heart," he told his father.

Bill looked at James. "This isn't about Will's heart, is it?" None of them had forgotten that whoever possessed the heart could control the captain, and through him the ship. Will had refused to let Elizabeth tell him where she planned to hide it for safekeeping, lest the secret should somehow put any of them at risk.

"Perhaps it is. I wouldn't presume to guess how Calypso might carry out her plans, but I suspect it must have something to do with the former captain of this vessel."

"The man she loves." Bill nodded, understanding. "Not even a sea goddess can reach him in the Locker. But the captain of the _Dutchman_ could."

Will felt more fury rising in him than he could muster at the thought of Elizabeth with James, or Jack, or even Barbossa. "Davy Jones is the reason I must spend ten years sailing these seas instead of being with my wife," he spat. "Give me one reason why I should consider helping _him_."

"Son, you know as well as I do that Elizabeth won't spend those ten years safe on land." Bill didn't even know yet that Elizabeth was carrying his grandchild, but Will already knew that that would change as little as possible for Elizabeth if she had her way. "If the sea goddess controls the waves, she can keep Elizabeth safe from storms and reefs and raiders all."

"Don't think of it as helping Jones," James suggested. "I think Bill has the right of it -- if Calypso needs your help to free Jones, then you have the leverage to bargain for Elizabeth's safety in return. Such safety as is within Calypso's power, that is. And that might go beyond the power of the sea."

He gave Will a significant nod. Will knew that he referred to the dangers of childbirth, and that he was right; the one-time voodoo priestess might well have charms or herbs or other means to keep Elizabeth safe then.

Will begrudged the idea of aiding Jones, for any reason at all, but if that was Calypso's aim then he suspected he would have no choice, and might as well make the best bargain he could.

"The _Dutchman_ can go anywhere. The living world, this world of the dead, the Locker beyond the End of the World -- anywhere at all, with her captain at her helm," said Bill. "Surely if Calypso wanted Jones freed and could do it herself, she would. She _must_ need your help; there seems no other reasonable explanation why she is aiding you."

James nodded again.

"I suppose that must be it," said Will, although it niggled at him that they might have overlooked something. Neither pirates nor women nor the sea were to be trusted, and Calypso in her way united all three. "So, then. What does each person in this increasingly complicated set of agreements get in the end?"

"You're freed from the captaincy after ten years," Bill said. "Your wife is kept safe for that time... perhaps for her whole life. And she'll stay young, to match you, from drinking the water of the Fountain of Youth."

"I get ten years of life," said James quietly. He did not need to add "with Elizabeth."

"Sparrow and Barbossa each gets the Water of Life as well, and Calypso gets Jones." Will spat after Jones's name. "It seems straightforward enough, but will the agreements hold? Who would benefit by breaking them, and how?"

"Jack wants the _Pearl_ back again. If he can come up with a scheme to achieve her repossession, I think he might be willing even to give up the Water of Life. Certainly he would be willing to do anything short of that," James said.

"That's Jack," Bill agreed. "He values that ship above anything but his own skin."

Will looked troubled. "He saved Elizabeth's life, twice," he admitted. "In both cases at risk to himself." James hadn't been there when Jack had taken Elizabeth from the sinking _Dutchman_ as Will had lain dead on the deck -- Will knew about it only from Elizabeth, who'd told him afterward -- but surely James remembered how Jack had saved Elizabeth when she'd fallen into the sea and nearly drowned in her corset.

"Jack has never had to choose between Elizabeth's safety and the _Pearl_ ," James pointed out. "And we all know how Elizabeth chose when the balance lay between staying with Jack and a sinking ship or saving herself and the crew."

"What about Barbossa?" asked Bill. "He can't be trusted. You know what he did to Jack and me."

Now James looked uncomfortable. "I wouldn't trust Barbossa or his monkey any further than I could toss the pair of them. But where Elizabeth is concerned... I think he likes her."

Will swore under his breath. "Is there any man currently serving on the _Black Pearl_ who is _not_ in love with my wife?" he asked plaintively.

"Pintel and Ragetti," said James at once. "And Murtogg and Mullroy."

It shouldn't have been funny, but it was. Helplessly, Will broke into a smile, and James smiled back.


	12. Chapter 12

Elizabeth paced the deck, peering over the side from time to time as if she expected James to appear in one of the boats that had borne her father to the land of the dead past the world's end. It was hopeless, of course. Calypso would bring James back when she was good and ready, and not one moment before.

It wasn't that Elizabeth feared for James's safety. Now that she could guess what the sea goddess wanted with Will, she knew that James would be safe, at least for as long as Calypso and Will both believed that James served their interests. She wondered whether Will would ask James exactly what Elizabeth had been up to since they'd last seen each other. They had promised one another that no Church-based notions of marriage would govern them so long as they remained true to one another in their hearts, but how Will would feel about his pregnant wife carrying on with her former fiancé, and a pirate he had once envied, and Barbossa for heaven's sake, she couldn't begin to guess.

She had never pretended that she wanted any of them only for protection or leverage: all right, with Barbossa in particular, she had tried to tell herself that she was only indulging him to keep them all on equal terms, as it were, but he'd surprised her just as much as James with his passion and intensity. What were James and Will doing now -- renegotiating their bargain, and sealing it as they had done before? The thought made her quiver a bit. She hoped that James would tell her all about it when he returned.

The ladder creaked, and Jack hauled himself on deck. "Not tiring yourself out, are you, love?" he inquired.

Elizabeth sniffed at him. "It takes more than a bit of walking on deck to tire me, as you should know." She had proved that quite thoroughly on more than one occasion.

"Good, since we will have quite a distance to travel on land before we reach the Fountain," Jack said. He pulled out the chart and glanced at it. Elizabeth stepped closer, but before she could get more than a glimpse, Jack had tucked it against his chest.

"Jack." She scowled.

"Sorry, love," he apologized, letting the chart come into view again. "Old habits."

Elizabeth didn't try to take it from him -- despite their initial agreement that she would hold the chart, Jack had retaken it and only let her or James have it when he slept, and she suspected he wouldn't do that if he had any choice -- instead leaning close to tap the oddly-shaped letters that spelled out "Aqua de Vita".

"How long do you think it will take?"

"Another day or two before we arrive on the Florida coast," he said, squinting up at the sails. "Luckily the Fountain doesn't seem to be too far inland, if I read this right, but it is probably a good day's walk, or more, to reach it."

Calypso would deign to return James by then, Elizabeth hoped. If not, well, they would owe the sea-goddess nothing, and she would not mind that outcome either.

"I suppose Hector will leave most of the crew on the _Pearl_ ," she said.

"To guard her? Most likely. Although the more who travel to the Fountain, the more water can be taken away." Jack grinned. "Who knows how much a person must drink to restore his youth?"

"A good point," said Elizabeth slowly. "And what if someone were to drink too much? Would he revert to childhood? Perhaps disappear altogether? I doubt there will be instructions conveniently placed for pilgrims such as ourselves. Who knows how quickly it will take effect, for that matter?" She wondered, but did not say aloud, if the Water might have adverse effects on the child she carried.

"We will simply have to see." Jack slipped his arm around her waist. "Elizabeth."

Jack wanted something, she knew at once. As much as she wanted to believe that it was simply herself that he was after, she was perfectly aware that Jack had more on his mind than her charms. "Yes, Captain Sparrow?" she asked sweetly, gesturing to remind him that they were hardly alone on deck, what with Gibbs pretending to ignore them and Pintel openly watching with a naughty grin on his face.

"I'm just being friendly, love," Jack explained helpfully.

"Yes, you've been very friendly this entire voyage." Elizabeth gave him her most winning smile. "Am I to understand, then, that I am entirely forgiven for the incident with the Kraken, and my welfare is now your foremost concern?"

Jack made one of his incomprehensible gestures. "Since we have all agreed that the past shall be overlooked if not precisely forgotten for mutual benefit during this venture, and since the Water of Life may restore, as it were, what time was stolen from me during my lamentable imprisonment in Davy Jones' Locker --"

"Which was not my fault, but the result of a bargain that you yourself had made with Jones," Elizabeth put in, wanting to make sure Jack remembered that it was not she who had trapped Jack into servitude or punishment at Jones's behest.

" -- be that as it may, if this venture of ours is successful, there will be no reason to belabor those events which I'm sure you wish to put behind us just as I do."

Nodding, Elizabeth leaned in to whisper confidentially in Jack's ear, blowing a bit and letting her tongue brush the lobe. "And what of the _Black Pearl_? I assume you have a plan to steal it back from Barbossa."

"Don't worry yourself about dear Hector," Jack murmured back. "If he refuses to see reason and return full powers to the ship's rightful captain, despite the known wishes of the crew, I shall be far more generous than he was with me, and leave him plenty of rum and apples in his exile."

"But exile can be so lonely," purred Elizabeth, walking her fingers up Jack's chest. "I suspect you're generous enough to plan to leave him with companionship as well. Perhaps distracting companionship, so that you can get away on the _Pearl_ while he is otherwise engaged." She gave Jack's beard a tug. "Am I right?"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean." Jack's wide-eyed, wounded expression was very nearly convincing.

Elizabeth would have pressed further, but a crab scuttled over the side, followed by another. " _Finally_ ," she exclaimed. "It's about time." She couldn't help noticing that Jack shuffled away from the rail uneasily as the crabs that were Calypso began to cover the deck.

It was disconcerting to see not only Calypso herself, but James Norrington emerge from the pile of clattering crustaceans.

"Him will remember?" Calypso asked James. He nodded. The sea-goddess turned to Elizabeth, who very much wanted to know what it was James was to remember, but thought it best to wait and inquire in more privacy. "Your man, he is a canny bargainer. If his bargain calls on you, will you act as he promised?"

Jack had edged behind Calypso, and was shaking his head, but Elizabeth did not need his advice.

"No. Not until I know what he promised, and not unless I agree with what he said. Even my husband does not speak for me; the Pirate King acknowledges no man as superior." She met Calpyso's dark gaze levelly.

To her surprise Calypso smiled. "I thought you would not. Be it so." She turned toward Jack, but said nothing to him before transforming once again into the multiple crabs which scuttled off the side of the ship.

James shook himself. "Is she gone?"

"She appears to be." Elizabeth glanced around and saw no remaining crabs. "Were you on the _Dutchman_?"

"Yes." James shut his eyes briefly. "Your husband sends his love, and was delighted, if somewhat concerned, to hear your news."

"My news? Oh." Elizabeth had almost forgotten that Will had not known of their child-to-be, she had grown so accustomed to the idea. "Thank you for telling him. Why did Calypso take you to see him, do you suppose?"

"Why ask for her reasons?" Jack broke in. His voice had a sour edge now, quite different from the flirtatious tone he had been using before they had been interrupted. "You'll think you know them, and she'll prove you mistaken, time and again."

James ignored Jack. "I was also able to tell Will that we were all en route to the Fountain of Youth, as he and I planned. We think that Calypso's interest in all this is in having Will in her debt, on your account, so that he will retrieve Jones from the Locker for her."

"And what promises did Will make that I am expected to fulfill, if Calypso spoke true? And what is it that you are supposed to remember?" Elizabeth demanded.

Now James _was_ looking at Jack. "Will and I agree that Elizabeth's safety comes before any other concern," he said, enunciating each word carefully, as if Jack were a simpleton who might find a way to misunderstand. "If recovering the Water of Life should prove too dangerous, we turn back to the ship."

"All right," Jack said, with a smile and a small bow.

" _All_ of us, Jack. Not just Elizabeth and myself."

Jack's expression turned surly. "If you and Captain Swann should choose to remain with the ship, surely you wouldn't object to a small shore party carrying out our intended mission..."

"I know how pirates treat crewmen who fall behind, Sparrow. Even captains." James narrowed his eyes. "Will and I also agree that Elizabeth's safety is more important than the question of who captains the _Black Pearl_. Whether it's Barbossa or you, Jack, it's all the same to us."

Jack's eyes had slid over to Elizabeth when Barbossa's name was mentioned. "And in this matter, do you agree with your husband?" Jack asked her. "Or, as a former pirate king, do you wish to speak for yourself?"

Elizabeth chose not to be goaded. She had no doubt that Will and James truly had her best interests at heart, even though she might not agree with their methods. And she was growing ever more certain that Barbossa, too, would protect her. Which meant that, even if a good man lurked beneath Jack Sparrow's avaricious exterior as she had always believed, he was her least dependable ally.

James had turned his attention back to Elizabeth as well. "Calypso told me that there are herbs that grow in Florida which will keep you safe during childbirth," he said. "I assume that a sorceress who could raise Barbossa from the dead must know her remedies. Whatever happens at the Fountain of Youth, we will wish to find them."

"Then you would be risking everything for another man's wife, Norrington?" asked Jack, picking at the fraying end of a braid as though it mattered little to him.

James rested a hand on his hip very near to where his sword would have been, were he wearing one. "Perhaps you don't understand how the _Flying Dutchman_ performs her duties," he said acidly. "Jones may have found lonely immortality because he shirked his duties, but if Will carries out the job of ferrying the dead and comes ashore to find Elizabeth and his heart waiting for him, after ten years, his life will be returned to him. He will go free."

Elizabeth's eyes widened in understanding. "Whereas you have promised to join the crew at the end of that time. And the _Dutchman_ will need a captain."

"Better captain than crew, wouldn't you agree? I am sure that Sparrow would." James gave Jack a mocking bow.

"Yes," acknowledged Elizabeth. She now comprehended more fully the purpose behind James's presence... at least, so she thought. Transparent though he was in many ways, he occasionally had surprised her, not least when he released her from her betrothal and relinquished her to Will. Had he not, none of them would be here now; perhaps none of them would be alive. Cutler Beckett had been quite ruthless. "Which raises an interesting question. When we leave the _Pearl_ to traverse the wilds of the Florida jungle, or whatever it may be, who will be in command of the landing party?"

"Why, you, love, of course," said Jack with an air of surprise, as if no other answer were possible.

"Oh? Why me?" Not that Elizabeth objected, though she thought that Barbossa had best be consulted before anything was decided. Even if he agreed with the decision, were he not part of the deliberations he would dispute it simply to maintain his pride.

"Who but the Pirate King should lead a party that includes two pirate captains and a former admiral of the Royal Navy?" Jack's voice remained disingenuous, which warned Elizabeth that there was more to it than what he had said.

"James? What do you think? Both Jack and Hector have returned from the dead in a way that you have not, and I have never died. The Water of Life will presumably have no effect on you as it would on the rest of us. One might argue that you would therefore be the best leader, since you have the least personal stake in the matter," said Elizabeth.

"As Jack pointed out, I am also not a pirate." James gave her a tight grin. "Which might qualify me uniquely for this, but also might _dis_ -qualify me, given that pirates are not known for trusting authority in any official guise. No, I agree that you are the best choice, assuming that Barbossa is willing."

"Willing to do what?" asked Barbossa, suddenly appearing on the upper deck.

Elizabeth gave her hair a defiant toss. "When we reach the coast of Florida, I shall lead the landing party to the Water of Life."

She expected an objection, but Barbossa only cast a sharp look toward Jack before returning his gaze to her. "Are you certain that's wise?" he asked her. "Not every man here can be trusted when there's treasure at stake."

"If you mean, do I understand that either you or Jack may abandon me to seize either the Fountain or the _Pearl_ , I take it for granted," she retorted. "However, I would suggest that you both consider how the sea goddess might punish any slight to myself or to James, who has found favor with her. You take to the seas without us at your own peril."

She kept her eyes on Barbossa as she spoke, but the words were as much for Jack... if not more for Jack.


	13. Chapter 13

So Elizabeth would be traipsing through the wilds of Florida. Which meant that both Norrington and Barbossa would be following in her wake, probably trying to outdo one another to keep her safe. It almost made things too easy, thought Jack. He'd half a mind to volunteer to stay behind and defend the _Black Pearl_ while they were hacking through the jungle, but Hector would certainly become suspicious if Jack didn't want to leave the ship. They both knew that if Jack had to choose between the Fountain of Youth and the _Pearl_ , he'd be sailing away while Hector and the others were getting drunk on life.

Hector was still on the weather deck, which probably meant that Elizabeth was with Norrington. Perhaps young William had asked James to give his wife a kiss on his behalf. Or something more than a kiss. At least, they were likely to be distracted until the next bell.

"Mr. Gibbs," Jack called out, catching his old friend by the arm as they passed on the gun deck. "I wish to speak to you about the care and protection of my ship when we make landfall."

"Your ship?" asked Gibbs, looking befuddled. Doubtless he'd been at the rum. "Oh, your ship! You mean the _Pearl_!"

"Shhhhh," Jack admonished him. "I believe that Captain Barbossa has many things weighing on his mind at the moment, and I wish to be certain that, should it become necessary to make a quick departure, the crew will be ready to pull up anchor at a moment's notice."

Their plans were interrupted by a shout from above. "Land, ho!"

Gibbs started, and was about to head for his duty station when Jack forestalled him.

"Landfall is not that imminent," he said firmly. "Nor is there likely to be rum obtainable there." He ignored Gibbs's sigh.

"What is it you want, Cap'n?"

At least one of the crew acknowledged his rightful position, although Gibbs was somewhat less than reliable. But he had never mutinied, and that said something for him.

"Barbossa," Jack would not grant the title of captain to the man, "will doubtless place someone in command of the _Pearl_ when the landing party leaves the vessel. Whether or not that someone is yourself, you are _my_ first mate and I therefore will hold you to be in command at that time. You are to ensure that the crew is alert and on duty at all times... after the first twenty-four hours, that is." He reckoned that was safe enough. No pirate crew could be expected not to slacken off after landfall, but it would take at least a day to reach the Fountain and obtain its bounty. "The ship must be prepared to depart the moment I return. Savvy?"

Gibbs looked confused. Jack regretted that Gibbs was the best man he had to rely upon.

"When _you_ return? What about the rest of the landing party?"

"Any man who falls behind, is left behind." Jack showed his teeth in a grin. "Those who aid me will receive due recompense."

"Aye, I understand you." Gibbs nodded and laid his finger alongside his nose. "Consider the ship as good as yours, Jack."

"She _is_ mine." He barely kept his voice controlled. With a touch of luck, he would have both the _Pearl_ and the Water of Life. Even without luck, he would have his ship back. Eternal youth meant nothing to him without the freedom that the _Black Pearl_ brought.

"Gibbs!" Marty peered up at them. "Captain bids you to haul line."

"Aye, aye, I'm coming." Gibbs hurried off, with Marty following him.

Gibbs might or might not manage to do as Jack had asked, but it was a start. Jack made his way along the deck, considering additional possibilities. He ducked out of sight into the hold to find the bundle of useful items he had put together, ready for this moment.

Someone had beaten him to it. The rum was gone.

This meant two things. The first, which Jack had already suspected, was that Elizabeth Swann was a meddling, intrusive, hard-hearted woman with no understanding of what a man needed to survive. The second was that she already knew, or could guess, at his plan.

Had she told Barbossa? Jack could hear him on the upper deck, shouting orders, taking in sail, preparing to send the boats over the side as they approached the coast. They were running low on apples, but Jack had a feeling that Elizabeth could persuade Hector to make do with oranges, especially after a long sea voyage when the risk of scurvy ran high. Surely Hector didn't fool himself that Elizabeth found him as delightful as he apparently found her, but if Elizabeth had decided that Hector would be a better ally than Jack, it would mean Jack would have to fight off her, Barbossa, _and_ Norrington, all to reclaim the ship that was rightfully his in the first place.

He heard a screech and looked up. The nasty spying undead monkey, his namesake, was hanging from a coil of rope. Since Tia Dalma had reunited the creature with Barbossa, they had been more inseparable than ever. "Did _you_ take the rum?" demanded Jack, but the monkey only cocked its head and scampered up on deck.

At least his telescope was still there, and the sword he'd borrowed from a sailor in Tortuga. Jack had not allowed the compass off his person, nor his knife, and he had only relinquished the map when it had been necessary for one of the others to consult it... or when he slept. Barbossa had the rum locked up, but he'd have to relinquish the keys to Jack when it was Jack's turn on watch, which would surely occur before they reached Florida.


	14. Chapter 14

"Let me help you," said James, reaching to give Elizabeth a hand out of the boat.

She rolled her eyes at him. "I am not so infirm that I am incapable of doing this myself." Indeed, Elizabeth looked healthier than ever, dressed now in a pirate's discarded coat, breeches, and boots. With her hair tucked under her hat, she looked rather like a boy, but that didn't bother James. Will was nearly as pretty as she was, particularly in the sorts of big feathered hats that had been in favor when Will and Elizabeth had tricked him into letting Jack Sparrow escape and thus ruined James Norrington's life.

Not that he minded so very much, he thought as Barbossa flashed him a grin.

"Jack," Elizabeth was complaining. "You need to let us all see the map. We know better than to let you be our guide through the jungle. Someone else must know the route."

"I might be in more of a collaborative mood if someone would return the rum," replied Jack peevishly.

"Stop your complaining, Jack, and let the lady see the charts," Barbossa ordered.

For a moment James thought Jack might comment on the term "lady" -- it was true that it was quite inadequate to describe Elizabeth -- but he merely scowled the harder and pulled the map from inside his jacket, adjusting the wheels to the proper position to display the location of the Fountain of Youth.

"Captain Swann. No, Turner." Jack swept one of his florid bows. "Pardon me. _Pirate King_ Turner, if I make no mistake. As our duly chosen leader, you shall be the one to know the route and guide us to our destination."

Elizabeth's expression was openly skeptical, but she took the chart from Jack and studied it, waving Barbossa back when he attempted to come close to see it for himself. James had examined the route while they were all back on the _Pearl_ , and thought he remembered it well enough. Nonetheless he edged to a position where he could glimpse the map over Elizabeth's shoulder, blessing his touch of long-sightedness for letting him make out the details from there. Jack would do was was best for himself, and although Elizabeth was trustworthy -- most of the time -- James preferred the security of knowledge that would let him act independently if need be.

It was notable that Jack had given Barbossa the impression that neither Elizabeth nor James had examined the chart in any detail before this, and that Elizabeth was playing along with that little deception. James wondered if Barbossa, too, knew more than it appeared; but no. Jack would never have let the man see the charts, James had not, and he didn't believe Elizabeth had ever had the opportunity to do so.

"That way." Elizabeth looked up and pointed northwest, into a dense and swampy-looking tangle of trees whose roots held their trunks up high in the air.

"I'll keep this for now," she added, rolling up the map and tucking it into a pocket in her jacket. She slung her canvas poke over her shoulder. "Are you all ready? It's past midday, but my guess is that we won't reach the Fountain until late tomorrow, at best, so we might as well begin."

James settled his own bag and checked his sword in its sheath. He had not worn it on board, but on this expedition, a good weapon might be invaluable. Will Turner had fashioned some of the finest swords James had ever seen, and this had been one of his best. "Ready."

His reply was echoed by the rival captains and the half-dozen crew that Barbossa had insisted on bringing. Gibbs, the only one with whom James was more than passingly familiar, had been left in charge of the ship.

Barbossa fell into step beside him as they walked. Elizabeth had taken the lead, with Pintel and Ragetti bumbling beside her -- the one with a wooden eye, the other with a stature that would have kept him from advancement in the Royal Navy. Jack had taken up the rear and was currently engaged in conversation with the two buffoons who had most recently worked for Cutler Beckett, though they had been stationed at Port Royal when James had first been made Commodore.

"What d'ye think of our chances of finding the Fountain?" Barbossa asked.

"From what I understand, the map was accurate, if enigmatic, in leading you to Davy Jones's Locker and back," James replied, glancing forward to be certain that the men flanking Elizabeth were doing an adequate job scouting ahead. "Are you concerned with finding the Fountain, or with retrieving its treasure?"

Barbossa flashed him a grin. "If the Fountain be all that the legends say it is, we'll have no trouble collecting." Two of the men marching with them carried empty barrels from the ship, ready to be filled and conveyed back through the jungle with the priceless water. Then Barbossa lowered his voice. "And what d'ye think of our chances of making our way home with our prize?"

The word "home" made James hesitate. He had none now, he supposed, apart from the _Flying Dutchman_ , and by command of her captain, at Elizabeth's side. As for Barbossa, where did he consider home to be? "By home, do you mean Khazaran?" asked James.

Barbossa laughed so loudly that Elizabeth glanced back to see what she'd missed. "I have never had the pleasure of sailing the Volga," said the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea with contempt in his voice. "In fact, I intend to live my life without ever laying eyes on the big salty lake it feeds." Casting an appraising look at James, Barbossa lowered his brows. "Did you believe I inherited my position as Pirate Lord? I took the title on the point of a sword."

"I had wondered," James admitted. He had been even more curious how Jack Sparrow had come by such a title as well, but Elizabeth had recently explained about Captain Teague and the Pirate Code of the Brethren. "Does that mean, then, that whoever possesses the appropriate piece of eight can claim the title of Pirate Lord?"

"Aye, but you'd have to find it, first, and since we burned our old ones to free Calypso, you'd have to know what you were looking for. The Brethren Court won't be a-meetin' again this century, I estimate, so I wouldn't worry too much about the titles." With a toothy grin, Barbossa leaned in as if confiding a secret. "If I were you, I'd be more worried about Jack's plan to steal the _Pearl_. Surely you realize he intends to take my ship and strand whoever is necessary to accomplish that goal?"

James reacted as though he hadn't given much thought to the possibility. "I assume you have a plan to prevent him?" he asked in the same low voice.

"I do, but it will require cooperation from yourself. We dead men have to stick together."

Which rather ignored the fact that Jack was similarly dead, of course, but James nodded. "What is it that you need me to do?"

"Watch Sparrow." Barbossa flicked a glance over his shoulder in Jack's direction. "Stay near him, as much as you can; he trusts no one these days, but he seems to mistrust you less than some. And keep your hand on your sword, ready for whatever he may do. Between us we two can defeat him."

"If it comes to a fight," James agreed. He knew that with a sword he was as good as, perhaps better than, Jack. The only reason the pirate had held his own against James on Isla Cruces was because it had been a three-way fight, and Will was even more skilled than James. As long as James and Hector worked together, Jack would stand no chance. "I would not care to wager that Sparrow will depend on shedding blood as his means, however. In the past he has been too canny for that."

"Too cowardly," corrected Barbossa with a curl of his lip. "But you're right. It would be out of Jack's character."

"And he has a surfeit of character." James's sardonic smile was matched by Barbossa.

"That he has. He might be suborning Mullroy and Murtogg to aid him, but it has never been Jack's way to rely on others if he could avoid it -- proof why he should not be captain of the _Pearl_ , if any were needed. More likely he has a plan to use them as dupes, to distract us."

"You're likely right." James detoured around an especially large mangrove. This whole area was in effect one enormous swamp, and stank of stagnant water. "We'll watch them too, but Sparrow more closely. I doubt he'll do anything before we find the Fountain, not with Elizabeth carrying the charts."

They stopped for the night not long after dark, and not long after something that _might_ have been a dangerous monster, but had more likely been a small lizard, terrified Murtogg into a fit of screaming. Even in the damp swamp, the pirates proved adept at getting a fire lit, and Pintel managed to shoot down a couple of large-billed birds that fed them all very well along with what fruit they could scavenge. James found several of the herbs that Calypso had recommended, too, and carefully gathered them to take back to the ship for Elizabeth, should she need them.

Barbossa and Jack took first watch along with two of the other men -- James doubted that Hector would sleep at any time when Jack was awake, so long as they were on land -- so James lay next to Elizabeth, hoping to rest close to her with the sounds of night birds and insects all around them.

"What were you and Hector plotting earlier?" she whispered when he crawled near.

"Plotting? Nothing. We were discussing our course of action should Jack try to seize the _Pearl_ , which we both think very likely," James whispered back.

"I trust you came up with a better solution than Hector's, which I suspect will be to shoot him?"

For reasons James didn't want to think about, it irritated him to hear Elizabeth calling Sparrow and Barbossa both by their given names. "I've a mind to shoot Sparrow myself if he tries to strand us here," he replied irritably.

"The thing about Jack," said Elizabeth slowly, "is that he values second chances even more than he values that ship. He'd deny that it's so, but look how careless he's been; Hector has managed to steal the _Pearl_ from him three times now. He may believe he'd leave us at the Fountain to take the _Pearl_ now, but I don't believe he'll leave here without the Water of Life, at least not before he knows whether it can do all its reputation claims."

James pushed her sun-streaked hair back from her forehead. He had often thought that Elizabeth was the cleverest of all of them, and was sorry for the thousandth time that she had always preferred Turner to himself, though Turner's charms were fresh in his mind. "Your weakness is that you truly believe a good man resides inside each of us," he told her, though privately he thought that that was also her greatest power over them all.

"I haven't been proven wrong yet. Barbossa has behaved entirely honorably toward us since the meeting of the Brethren Court. Jack risked his life for me and gave up immortality aboard the Dutchman for Will. And you came back. I wonder whether even Davy Jones might be saved, now that his heart is no longer locked in a chest."

Again James wondered about Calypso's role in all this. If Will could retrieve Jones from the Locker, and his current companions could find the magical water, could Jones live again as a man? At this point, he thought, nothing would have surprised him.

Though when Sparrow woke him for his watch, and he rose to see Elizabeth sleeping peacefully between a leering Pintel and Ragetti, James wondered whether that was really true.


	15. Chapter 15

Today was the day his life became truly his own again, thought Hector Barbossa as he rose. Today they would find the Fountain of Youth, and no matter what threats the sea goddess might make against him, no matter how many times Sparrow might try to steal his ship, no matter what ploy the lovely Captain Swann might try to use to keep every man present under her thumb, today Hector would find renewal.

He toed his men in the ribs to wake those who still slept. It didn't take long before the whole party had broken their fast -- ship's biscuit was not an entertaining enough comestible to warrant lingering over it -- and was ready to move out.

Elizabeth retained the chart, of course, and led them in her usual imperious manner. Not that Hector minded that. Much. Audacity generally pleased him, although she could take it to extremes. She did guide them well, however, preventing Mullroy and Murtogg from blundering into an area that the chart identified as quicksand. Their loss in itself would have mattered little, except that they happened to be the ones carrying the barrels for the Water of Youth, and _that_ loss would have been disastrous.

The air was warm and humid and all of them slapped at mosquitoes and other insects as they threaded their way through the maze of trees and over the sodden ground. Hector was thankful that the Fountain was supposed to be not too far inland; he was meant for the open sea and the salt breeze, not this putrid marsh.

Sparrow's open peevishness over the climate mollified Hector's disgruntlement somewhat, enough that he was able to say, almost cheerfully, "Not too damp for you, is it, Sparrow?"

He earned a glare for that, which improved his mood further. Elizabeth shook her head but seemed more amused than anything. She was walking alone at the moment, a few yards behind Crimp and Matelot who were in the lead. Hector lengthened his stride to catch up to her.

"How much further d'ye think the Fountain may be, Captain Swann?"

She shrugged, a motion that tightened the material across her bosom. Male clothes did not hinder her beauty at all. "Some hours. This is not terrain over which we can move quickly, and the map does not give exact distances in any case."

"Might I suggest that when next we come to some sizable hummock or two in this forsaken wilderness," Hector carefully kept his eyes on her face, "that a pause for victuals might be in order? You wouldn't want your loyal crew a-faintin' from hunger, now."

"If I can walk, I would think that even those two can keep up." Elizabeth gestured back at Murtogg and Mullroy, who were sweating copiously in the heat, mopping their faces with their sleeves. "Not getting tired, are you, Captain Barbossa?"

She was smiling, so Hector returned the smile. "I can keep up well enough," he said, gesturing expansively at the vegetation around them. "But some members of our party have complaints. You wouldn't want a mutiny on your hands."

Turning, Elizabeth looked back at Jack, who was waving his hat wildly to scare away some sort of flying insect. A fond smile played at the corners of her mouth. "Jack wouldn't dream of mutiny after his own tragic experiences with such a horror, would he?" she asked sweetly.

"When the captain isn't keeping the best interests of the crew at heart, it's the crew's responsibility to appoint another captain," Barbossa said, returning her smile. "Even if it means feeding the former captain to the Kraken. I'm sure you'd agree."

It was a cruel remark, and Hector expected her ire -- he was rather looking forward to it, in fact -- but Elizabeth only cast an appraising look at him. "Are you suggesting, then, that if the crew believes the best man for the position to be, perhaps, a former navy officer, or even a woman, then the crew should attempt to place that person in command of the ship?"

Hector laughed so loudly that every one of their fellow crewmembers stopped to look at them. "Ragetti! Toss me one of those apples," he barked, well aware that the most loyal of his shipmates was carrying the fruit safely bundled away. To Elizabeth, he said, "I'm sure that by now you know the risks of the captaincy. You're the only captain here who's never been deceased, and somewhat newer to the title than the rest of us."

"I promise you, Hector, I have no designs on your ship." The ground was sloping upward, and Elizabeth sounded faintly out of breath as she pulled out the chart. "Very well. We shall stop to eat when we reach the top of this hill, assuming..."

Her voice trailed off, and Hector took his gaze away from its surreptitious contemplation of her breasts to follow her glance. The trees seemed to thin out ahead, then disappear entirely.

"I think..." Putting the chart away, Elizabeth began to run. Immediately James and the others raced after her. They came to a halt as the ground dropped away in front of them.

At the bottom of the mound upon which they were standing, a cascade of water emerged from the ground.

"The Fountain of Youth," breathed Elizabeth. "It must be."

"Wait!" Hector barked as everyone began to move towards the sparkling spring.

"Whatever for?" Sparrow ostentatiously kept walking, though all the rest had stopped.

"We don't know what the effects will be." James voiced Hector's own thoughts. "How much must be drunk to have any effect, or whether drinking more will make a man younger still, for instance."

"That's a problem easily solved." Sparrow's gold teeth caught the sunlight as he grinned. "You, Ragetti. You drink a cupful, and Pintel, you drink two. Then we'll see what happens."

"Why do _I_ have to drink two cups?" Pintel complained.

"You're the oldest here, save perhaps Barbossa. Should more of the water from the Fountain of Youth have a greater effect, you can tolerate it best."

Hector seethed -- Pintel had at least a decade on him, he was sure -- but said nothing. Sparrow's method of testing was reasonable enough in the circumstances.

Cautiously Pintel and Ragetti each knelt and dipped out a cupful. Ragetti looked at his as if it might be poison, sipping and shuddering. Pintel closed his eyes and drank down the first cup in one go.

"How does it taste?" Murtogg asked.

"Like water," said Pintel. He looked at Sparrow, whose hand rested casually on the hilt of his sword, and with clear reluctance scooped up a second cupful and drank it.

"Like water," agreed Ragetti, still shuddering as he finished his.

"Do you feel any different?" asked Elizabeth, watching them both closely. "Your appearance hasn't changed."

"Perhaps it will take some time for the water to have an influence," said James. He had moved close behind Sparrow, Hector was glad to see.

Pintel ran a hand over the top of his head. "Is my hair growing back?" he asked hopefully.

"No, you look just the way you always do." Ragetti was rubbing his right eye socket crossly. "Ugly."

"I wouldn't be calling me ugly..." Pintel began, reaching into his boot, where no doubt he kept a knife.

"Enough!" Hector stepped between the men. "Ragetti, go sit and read your Bible. And Pintel, go sit and... contemplate whatever it is that you contemplate."

Jack raised a hand to get their attention. "I have a thought," he said. "Perhaps, while we wait, I might take Murtogg and Mullroy with me in search of some food for the rest..."

"No." Hector, James, and Elizabeth spoke simultaneously. "I'll go," James volunteered. "Mullroy and Crimp, you're with me."

Elizabeth nodded approval, and Hector sat down to wait. Seeing the Fountain had made him thirsty but he didn't want to risk drinking up their remaining water until they had a sure source to replace it. "Are all the apples gone?" he asked.

"There are sure to be oranges," Ragetti told him.

"Like you'd know. Why're you always talking about things you don't actually know about? 'It's a cephalopod,'" taunted Pintel, waving his fingers about like tentacles.

"At least I use my brain." Ragetti hit the side of his own head, knocking his wooden eye loose. True to his word, Hector had bought him a new one after the one that had served as his piece of eight had burned, but that wasn't what Hector was looking at now.

He was staring into a real eye.

"Ragetti," he said hoarsely. "Your eye." Hector's hand rose to point at his own.

Ragetti's hand shook as he touched it and blinked. "My eye!"

"So the Water of Life heals, too," murmured Elizabeth.

"Why isn't my hair grown back, then?" Pintel complained, rubbing his head.

Hector sighed. "How old were you when you first began to lose it?"

"He was balding when I first knew him," said Sparrow unhelpfully.

"Twenty?" Pintel looked at Ragetti.

"How should I know?" Ragetti was moving his hands, bringing each in turn close to his face, then stretching out his arms again. "You must have been thirty when I met you."

"What _are_ you doing?" Elizabeth asked Ragetti.

"I can see properly again, with perspective and all," said Ragetti.

As usual, Hector wondered how on earth an illiterate pirate had acquired such a vocabulary, and the ability to use it mostly accurately. Other evidence suggested the man was not clever at all. Baffling. He scowled. Pintel had never answered the question, either, but Hector explained his line of thought nonetheless.

"If the water from the Fountain of Youth restores a certain number of years, then presumably you would return to the physical state you were in at that age," he told Pintel. "If you had no hair at thirty, and that is the age the water brought you to, then you still would be bald."

"That makes sense." Elizabeth nodded.

Jack merely looked bored. "The real question is still whether more of the water youthens a person to a greater extent, or if contrariwise it merely returns the drinker to a fixed age, whatever that might be. Is Pintel now younger than Ragetti, having drunk more?"

Elizabeth cocked her head, stepping back to see the two men at once. "I don't think so."

Murtogg and Matelot chimed agreement with her, and Hector too thought that Pintel still looked to be the older, though considerably younger than he had been.

"Have your teeth been restored as well?" Elizabeth asked.

Now, that alone would be a reason to drink from the Fountain, thought Hector, running his tongue around his and wincing when it touched the rotten one on the left. He trusted barbers less than he trusted Sparrow; eventually it would come out on its own. He watched as Pintel opened his mouth, showing off the inside. The teeth were rather dirty, but not as yellow as Hector would have expected. One even appeared to be quite shiny.

"I think this one grew back," Pintel said, pointing to it and grinning.

All the men looked quite pleased, though Elizabeth frowned. "I think I do not dare drink now," she said. "There is no guessing what the effect might be on the child."

"We'll carry the water back for you," Jack told her. He had not taken his eyes from the Fountain since he had seen Ragetti's eye. "The safety now determined, I think I should like to..."

"I feel sick," Pintel said, sitting down and rubbing his belly.

All the grins of the men quickly disappeared. Elizabeth knelt next to Pintel, gazing worriedly at him. "Does it hurt anywhere specific? Is it a pain you've never felt before, or could it be an old wound closing? How familiar is the feeling?"

Pintel held up a hand to forestall her. "It's very familiar." He squinted, rubbing his belly, then he grinned. "Wait! I know what ails me, Poppet."

"And what might that be?" Hector demanded.

"I'm hungry," whimpered Pintel. The others nodded and muttered their agreement.

"Here is what we're going to do," announced Hector, feeling a need to take charge of the situation. "We will wait for Norrington and the others to return with food. No one else will drink from the Fountain until we've observed Pintel and Ragetti..."

"I'm hungry too," Ragetti put in.

"Be silent, I'm speaking!" The pirate looked chastened, but then Hector realized that he'd said everything he had to say. Well, almost everything. "Jack," he added. "I presume there must be natives who guard this treasure. Take Murtogg and go scout."

"Why me?" demanded Jack.

Hector allowed his hopefully-soon-to-be-restored teeth to show. "Because I'm the captain," he declared.

Just at that moment, James appeared with Crimp and Mullroy. They appeared to be carrying a large dead dragon.

"What under the sun is _that_?" Hector took an involuntary step backward. He disguised the motion by moving toward Elizabeth.

James shrugged. "Some species of crocodile, perhaps? It attacked, us and Crimp shot it. We decided to see if it is edible. There's certainly plenty of meat on the beast, and we didn't see much other game."

"Too noisy," Jack said under his breath, just quietly enough that no one but Hector and Elizabeth could have heard. Elizabeth shot Jack a look.

"We can try it," she decided. "Jack, you and Murtogg scout. Matelot, Ragetti, and Pintel, collect such wood as you can find nearby and start a fire to cook this beast. Crimp, since you killed it, you can help figure out how to dismember it -- should it be skinned, do you think, James? Hector? Or shall we roast it in its..." she prodded the animal with her boot, "its scales?"

Jack scowled, but jammed his hat further down on his forehead and gestured to Murtogg to accompany him. They disappeared among the trees.

With only one potential ally to suborn, Jack was unlikely to pose any immediate threat to Hector. He had no Water of Life yet, and Hector doubted that Jack would try to retake the _Pearl_ without having drunk from the Fountain, not now that they knew its effects were real.

"In its skin, I think," James was saying. "Crimp, use that little axe of yours again."

The beast had already been split down the belly and gutted, before they had brought it back. Crimp knelt beside it, his boots squelching, and held onto one clawed foot to cut off the leg at the joint. "Like this?"

"Yes, disjoint it, and then perhaps cut the trunk into sections," said Elizabeth. "Matelot," she added to the sailor who had just returned with an armful of wood, "cut a few green poles, some of them forked. We'll try spitting it and roasting it over the coals once the fire is established."

By the time Jack and Murtogg returned, the meat was well on its way to being cooked, sending out a surprisingly appetizing aroma. Elizabeth had persuaded Hector to part with a few of his apples by arguing that if the men were too hungry to wait and ate half-raw lizard meat, they might become too ill to carry heavy barrels of water back to the ship.

"Anything?" Hector asked Jack.

"No natives that I could see." But Jack's eyes were shifty, and Murtogg looked terrified.

"Did _you_ see anything?" Hector prodded him. The incompetent fool cast a desperate look in Jack's direction, but Jack was whistling nonchalantly, pretending to be more interested in Elizabeth's breeches-clad bottom than the question at hand.

"I-I thought I saw something in the trees..." Murtogg began.

"Sea turtles," said Jack firmly. "No threat to ourselves or to the _Pearl_."

It had bee a mistake for Jack to mention the ship, for it made both Elizabeth and James turn their heads. "Sparrow," said Norrington quite menacingly. "If I learn that you have put the lives of any of the crew in danger..."

"Sir! You wound me," Jack objected.

"You were the one who made me drink two cups," complained Pintel. "And we all know you have a plan to strand Barbossa here and take the _Black Pearl_."

Hearing it spoken aloud only made Hector laugh. "Jack, if you think that I would let you leave this spot alive..."

Just then a crab crawled out of the Fountain.


	16. Chapter 16

"I don't believe this," Elizabeth muttered. She was very warm, and very hungry, and very tempted to run Jack through herself if Barbossa didn't do it first. "Be quiet, both of you!" she snapped, earning a wounded look from Barbossa and a disgruntled one from Jack. "No one is leading a mutiny on an empty stomach. Mullroy, you shall have the honor of the first taste."

"Why does _he_ get the honor?" whined Pintel.

"So that if it does him the honor of making him sick, it won't be her," Ragetti whispered to him.

Jack had been slowly backing toward the rest of the men, standing guard near the fountain. "James," Elizabeth hissed, gesturing. "Do something about... that."

A sword coming out of its sheath makes a sound like no other, a rasping metallic rattle. James didn't bother to try to be quiet as he moved toward Jack and pulled out his sword.

"I think you might find it preferable to stay where you are," he said pleasantly, nodding toward the crabs now piling up by the dozens. "I believe we are to have company."

Elizabeth repressed a smile at the expression of injured innocence that Jack put on. Did he really think anyone would believe his disavowal of any plans of mutiny? Perhaps it was not technically mutiny, given Jack's claim to the captaincy, but close enough. She turned toward the crabs as they shimmered into the form of the sea-goddess.

"Calypso." Elizabeth inclined her head. Hector and James also bent their necks, and James prodded Jack until he did likewise. The six sailors looked awestruck; Pintel twisted his hands together and Murtogg seemed about to faint.

"So the Water of Life be yours, James Norrington." Calypso's voice was as rich and drawling as ever.

"Ours," James corrected, earning Elizabeth's approval. "I presume you have some purpose in coming here now, Calypso?"

"It is time for destiny to be fulfilled," she said.

"Now wait," Elizabeth broke in. "Whose destiny? And why do you need James for this? He has promised to stay with me until Will's ten years are finished." Not in quite those terms, but that had been the implication of their bargain. "You cannot take him now."

Calypso threw back her head and laughed, her tight braids bouncing. "James Norrington be not the one for me, Pirate King Turner. You may have him until your own man returns. He be the daemon, one who can walk between worlds, and carry the Water of Life with him to the other side."

"It's all right," said James to Elizabeth in an undertone. "She must want me to take the Water to Will, for him to use on Jones."

"That be your destiny," agreed Calypso.

"How long will it take, if you carry him off to the _Dutchman_ and back? I need him here." Elizabeth glared. Jack and Hector were neither of them to be trusted; James doubtless had his own motives, but she could trust him to stand by her at need. If he were gone, she might have trouble from either of the other captains, or both.

As if she could read Elizabeth's thoughts, Calypso glared from Jack to Hector. "These men will make no trouble for you," she said. "Lucky Jack will know that there is more than one Kraken in these waters." Jack blanched. "As for you, Barbossa..."

Calypso reached for Hector's hand. He made an attempt to evade her, but her fingers locked around his wrist, tugging it up for all to see as the skin seemed to melt away, revealing the skeleton underneath.

"Him will not forget whose power brought him back from the dead. You know what will happen if you ever fail me."

Hector looked nearly as pale as the bone Calypso had exposed in his hand. "Calypso, I assure you, I have no intention of behaving dishonorably toward Captain Swann."

"None of us would, seeing that she's breeding," Pintel put in, elbowing Ragetti, who nodded.

Elizabeth stepped toward James. With so many men watching, she did not dare embrace him, but she reached out to take his hand. "Give my love to Will," she said.

"I shall." A naughty gleam flickered in the depth of James's eyes, there and gone so quickly that she was sure none of the others had seen it. Turning back to Calypso, he demanded, "How am I to transport the Water of Life from this side to the other?"

Calypso reached beneath her long hair and pulled at the chain hidden beneath it, revealing the locket she had worn since Elizabeth had first known her, which she now knew to be a twin to the one kept by Jones. "Love be powerful magic," the sea goddess crooned, opening the gold case. "You need only a few drops to give life to Davy Jones. This will keep them safe for you, though I warn you, James Norrington, do not try to take this life for yourself."

Elizabeth felt that she had to ask: "Are we to assume, then, that this water will not restore life to James or to Will?"

"Him have seen what becomes of a man who corrupts his purpose," Calypso said cryptically, pointing to James.

Elizabeth assumed that this meant either of the men might become like Davy Jones -- a creature more animal than man. "What about me?" she asked. "Is it safe for me to drink while I am with child?"

Calypso shook her head. "You have no need of this fountain," she told Elizabeth. "Your captain will wait for you these ten years if you keep your promise to him."

"I will." Loyalty did not demand chastity, not between Will and herself. "Thank you, Calypso."

The sea goddess gave her an enigmatic smile and took James's hand. A flash of light dazzled all their eyes for a moment; by the time Elizabeth could see again, the two were gone.

"I wonder how she does that," Jack muttered. "It would be a useful trick."

"Don't be thinking you have the power of a god," said Hector disdainfully. "Even your self-pride must cavil at that."

Elizabeth laughed. "Whatever else, none of us here is a god. Or goddess."

"Can we eat now?" asked Ragetti plaintively.


	17. Chapter 17

"And so all I must do is find Jones and give him the Water of Life?" Will held up the locket with its precious contents.

"So Calypso said." James shuddered, still not quite recovered from the transition between Florida and the deck of the _Dutchman_. "Presumably she will appear again once he is restored, at which time -- I hope -- she will be willing to return me to Elizabeth. Calypso threatened both Jack and Barbossa if they do anything that threatens her, you might be glad to know, but I would prefer to be there myself."

"So would I," said Will, and it was not clear to James whether he meant that he wanted James there, or to be with Elizabeth himself. Perhaps both.

"Will we be able to find the Locker without the chart?" James asked him.

"I think so," said Will uneasily. "The difficulty in finding the Locker to retrieve Jack was in finding our way to these waters. Once we had sailed off the edge of the world and reached the Locker, the problem was not how to sail away from it but how to return to the world of the living. Jack figured that out."

James had to remind himself not to snort incredulously at Will's mention of sailing off the edge of the world. While Magellan had proved that the Earth was round, he had evidently failed to imagine a sea voyage to the life beyond, let alone a compass that could be directed by will alone or a heart that could beat for a hundred years locked inside a chest. "Jones must know how to bring the _Dutchman_ safely between this world and that one," he mused.

"We both saw what happened to Jones after he abandoned the task with which he had been charged." Will gestured to the dark water with its scattering of boats, each bearing its macabre cargo. "I don't imagine that Calypso will give me leave to depart these waters in order to ferry Jones back to the land of the living. My crew and I must remain on this side until the full ten years have passed."

If Calypso truly had all the power of the seas, James wondered whether she might be able to bring Will across for a single minute the way had brought James to Will -- just for long enough to see that Elizabeth was indeed well and glowing with her condition. But while it would have been gentlemanly to make the suggestion, James did not wish to do so. He had to admit that he liked having Will's full attention here, and Elizabeth's attention where Will could not follow. Not that James Norrington had ever possessed Elizabeth Swann's utter devotion.

"Why was it so important to you to save Jack Sparrow?" he asked sharply.

Will glanced at him, frowning. "Because it was important to Elizabeth," he said.

"Not because the pirate saved her? Or because he let the Kraken take him to spare the rest of the crew?"

There was no mirth in Will's smile. "Jack didn't _let_ the Kraken take him. Elizabeth... persuaded him."

Elizabeth had not shared that particular bit of information with James. He stared at Will, trying to guess how far Elizabeth would have gone to secure Sparrow's cooperation and how Will must have felt when he learned of it. How well James remembered watching Elizabeth watch Jack when they had sailed together in search of the chest that held Jones's heart. If James had suspected that Elizabeth wanted Jack, then surely Will had suspected the same.

"I wonder whether we'll recognize Jones without the tentacles," he said to change the subject.

"If he still has his hat, I suppose so." Will shrugged. "How many men can there be in the Locker? Jack seemed to be alone there."

"Except for the crabs," said James. "Not Calypso's crabs, though. He told us -- Elizabeth and myself -- about it once, when he was exceptionally drunk. I don't think he knew what he was saying, however, so I don't know if he was telling the truth."

Will chuckled without real amusement. "Does he ever?"

"By accident, perhaps." James pondered the question, wondering if in fact Sparrow even cared about the distinction between truth and falsehood, or for that matter reality and illusion.

"Perhaps." Will sighed. "We had best set sail for the Locker. It may take some time to reach it, even from these waters, and I don't like the idea of Elizabeth being alone with those pirates."

"She can take care of herself, you know," said James gently, despite understanding Will's feelings well. "But I agree."

It was not easy to tell how long that cold dim voyage took, though long enough for them both to appreciate the warmth of each other's company. The Locker, when they reached it, did not look the same as when Will and the others had found Jack, or so Will said. The shore was stony, strewn with wrack and shells, and smelt of rotten fish. Gray clouds scudded overhead.

"How do we find him?" asked James.

"Jack just... appeared," said Will, frowning. His crew stood in a cluster on the deck, muttering uneasily to one another. "We'll take a longboat ashore, you and I and several of the crew in case force is necessary."

"There's a light up on that headland, Captain." Bill Turner pointed at it.

"Well spotted." Will clapped him on the shoulder. "We'll try that direction first."

Will left his father in command of the _Flying Dutchman_ as he and James rowed out with four men. The water was unnaturally calm, not even tiny waves lapping at the shore, and the shore seemed flat and featureless despite the rocks and debris.

"This is nothing like what we found when we reached Jack," Will said, sounding troubled.

"Perhaps having Davy Jones himself in the locker has changed its nature," James suggested. "It's always spoken of as a sort of Hell for sailors, is it not? So if the Devil himself is now trapped here, it stands to reason that it may have become his own private hell."

"I don't like this," muttered one of Will's men. Considering that when James had first seen him, the man had had seaweed growing from his head and an urchin growing where his nose should have been, it was unnerving to hear such an objection.

"I prefer unnatural calm to an unnatural storm," Will said, helping to pull the longboat far up onto the rocks. "Something tossed these dead sea creatures here. These seas must not always be so still." He glanced around in frustration but there was nothing to which to tie up the boat -- no tree stump or even a large beam from a wreck. "You --" He pointed to one of the sailors. "Stay with the ship. You are not to leave until Commodore Norrington or myself returns."

"And what if ye don't come back?" asked the man plaintively. Will chose not to answer, gathering a length of rope from the bottom of the boat and heading up the faint slope toward the headland where they had seen the light.

James found himself forced to agree with the crewman who had complained that he didn't like the Locker. It wasn't just the clammy, cold air -- such a change after the heat of Florida -- but the stink of fishy carcasses and the sense of something watching them, likely something unnatural. It was absurd, he supposed, to fear for his own life or Will's, considering that they were both already dead men, but he knew that if they failed, Calypso's wrath would likely engulf Elizabeth and all the others on the _Black Pearl_.

"What do you make of Barbossa?" he asked Will as they walked, to distract them both from their circumstances.

"Surprisingly honest, for a pirate," replied Will. "On several occasions he could have killed Elizabeth or myself but felt it would have been a waste. And he never seemed to try very hard to rid himself of Jack, just to take his ship. Surely he knew that Jack might be rescued from that island where Barbossa marooned him twice."

"I wonder what Calypso offered him to persuade him to return from the land of the dead," James mused. "Merely the chance to sail and plunder again? To enjoy those apples he could not taste for so many years? She believed I would return for love."

"I don't suppose that was what tempted Barbossa," Will said, pointing at what appeared to be movement in the distance. "There. Could that be Jones?"

James squinted. "It might be. It looks human, more or less, though it isn't easy to tell from this far."

"Stay close," Will told the two crewmen. "Be ready."

Privately James wondered if the men would be willing to draw on their former captain; then he reconsidered and decided that they would doubtless be pleased to have a chance to settle a score with the man whose fault it was that they'd spent years as half-sea creatures.

As they drew nearer, the figure became more clearly human, until at last it proved to be Jones, as Will had thought; but a Jones far different from the blustering, resentful, bitter man that James had formerly seen. He seemed lost in his own thoughts, almost indifferent to their presence.

"Turner. Norrington. Finnegan, Penrod, Quittance," he acknowledged them before lapsing into a brooding silence, staring out over the sullen shore.

Will gestured to the others to remain silent. They waited.

It was quite some time before Jones looked at them again. "Why do you disturb me here?"

"We have come to rescue you," said Will. "If you wish to leave this place, that is."

Jones gave a joyless laugh. "Why should I leave? What else do I deserve?"

"No man is beyond redemption. You could have life again, and love. Calypso herself dispatched us to bring you back," James said.

"Calypso..." murmured Jones, longing in his voice. Then it sharpened. "She it was who sent me here to begin with."

"Did you not deserve her wrath, in some measure? You betrayed her. That does not mean she does not love you still. Women are not easy to understand, and goddesses even less so." Will spoke wryly.

"Would I be obliged to return to the _Dutchman_?"

"No. I have that burden for the next ten years, and James will follow me as captain. You will be free to be with Calypso," Will told him. "We have the Water of Life to restore you fully."

"To be with Calypso," repeated Jones bitterly, stroking the scraggly beard that had replaced his tentacles. "You mean, when _she_ chooses. _If_ she chooses. She is more fickle than the sea itself."

"She sent us for you," James pointed out again. "You must mean something to her."

"But not enough. It's in her nature -- she told me so herself. Like all women." Jones frowned at Will. "I know you. I _killed_ you."

"And before I died, I stabbed your heart, which is how I came to command your ship. That was my wedding day." James could hear the bitterness in Will's voice.

"And you believe your bride will wait ten years? She won't. You'll have your one day on land, and you'll spend it alone."

"I will not. I trust Elizabeth. I know that she'll wait for me." Will glanced at James, who nodded, though he doubted that Will needed reassurance. If anything, Will's expression suggested that he wanted to reassure James that he believed love could be more boundless than the sea. "As for Calypso, can't you see that she's sorry for the pain she caused you? Do you think she would have sent us here if she did not love you and wish to make amends?"

Jones scowled at them both. "You carry the Water of Life, you said?"

Will pulled the locket from around his neck. Jones flinched as he recognized it. "It's right here," said Will. "All you have to do is drink it, and you can return with us to where life and love await you."

"Give that to me," said Jones gruffly. He tilted his head back, tearing open the clasp, and let the water inside spill into his mouth. A single drop splashed across his cheek, dripping onto the rocky sand.

Which tilted beneath their feet.

"What..." James started to ask, when he was flung violently to the ground. "What's happening?" he shouted.

The other crewmen had already started to run in the direction of the boat. "I think we should get out of here!" Will shouted back over the suddenly rising wind.

"What did you do to me, Turner?" roared Jones, looking more like his old self -- not the tentacles, but the fury in his eyes. The ground was cracking and splitting apart beneath them. Not ground, James realized suddenly. It was crabs, thousands of them.

"Calypso!" James realized.

Instead of her usual appearance, the goddess had taken an enormous form, still human-like, though towering over the men. Her voice when she spoke was so low in pitch that James could not make out what she was saying, yet evidently Jones could.

"I will," he said, his voice cracking.

Calypso reached down with one colossal hand and picked him up. She said something else; again James could not understand.

"What did she say?" Will called up to Jones.

"She bids you both fulfill the destiny that she foresaw," Jones shouted back. "And says that you may see her some time in the future."

"Wait a minute," cried James. "I need Calypso to take me back to Elizabeth in the living world!"

"She will arrange that," Jones translated. "Tonight after you return, at midnight, be on the deck of the _Dutchman_." He looked up at Calypso, extending his arms toward her face. She brought him up to her shoulder and strode into the sea. As James and Will watched, the two disappeared.

"Well," said James finally. "I hope that means she's forgiven everyone else now too."

Will nodded. "For the moment, I think she has... until someone does something stupid again."

James rolled his eyes. "There is that. Sparrow, for instance, is not exactly to be trusted when it comes to acting sensibly. For his own benefit, without question, but that does not mean sensibly."

"No. Speaking of which, I think it best that we get you back to Elizabeth as soon as possible. Let's go back to the ship."

The five of them trudged along the noisome shore to where Manray waited by the longboat, his eyes darting nervously about. "There was a quake," he said.

"I don't believe it will happen again. Is the ship all right?" Will shielded his eyes to look at the _Dutchman_ , but she looked just as they had left her. The other men were already pushing the boat over the rocky shore to the water's edge, anxious to be away. They cast off with a minimum of speaking, just the occasional command from Will.

They were little more than halfway to the _Dutchman_ when the first waves appeared.

"Faster," Will ordered the oarsmen, picking up a spare oar and paddling himself from the stern.

The waves grew, splashing water into the boat and soaking James along with the rest. The unnaturally lit sky had darkened, and the clouds began to swirl over the strange land that was Davy Jones's Locker. "We should make haste," James called to Will, wishing there was another paddle.

"Those clouds look like the ones that formed when Calypso decided to interrupt our battle with the East India Company," agreed Will, squinting at the sky as rain began to fall. "We must move faster!"

They rowed alongside the _Flying Dutchman_ as the first boom sounded. James assumed it was thunder -- whatever passed for thunder in this strange otherworld -- but several crewmen cried out in fear and pointed toward the land. Looking back, he could see that the headland was glowing.

"A volcano?" he shouted to Will.

"We aren't going to stay long enough to find out, I hope." Grabbing the ropes lowered from the ship, Will climbed aboard, followed quickly by James and the others. Will was already shouting orders from the makeshift ladder to prepare the ship to sail.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" asked Bill Turner as he pulled James's arm to bring him aboard.

James tried not to flinch. It wasn't the same man who had killed him, at least, not precisely. "We won't know until we leave this place."

The wind had picked up, making it difficult for the crew to set the sails. Were they anywhere else, James knew, Will would be ordering the sails trimmed, but they were desperate now to put distance between themselves and the rubble of Davy Jones's Locker no matter the risk to the masts. They lurched violently on the waves, sliding across the now-wet deck, as the sky turned the same dull orange as the receding land.

"Calypso will let us get away," Will shouted to James. "She promised." James held his tongue on his opinion about the promises of sea-goddesses, and clutched at the nearest pin as the ship heaved.


	18. Chapter 18

The earth shook again, and they all stumbled, Ragetti actually falling over. Mullroy and Murtogg carried one full barrel of the Water of Life, Crimp and Matelot the other. Jack watched with well-disguised anxiety to make sure that neither barrel lost any of the precious fluid. They were nearly back to the shore; he would have only one chance, at best, to purloin a barrel and retake the _Pearl_.

Murtogg had been reluctant to go along with Jack's plans, but Jack had convinced him that Barbossa was unlikely to share the Water with all the crew, not when he could sell it for a fortune. Jack had miscalculated, choosing Pintel and Ragetti to test the stuff. They were the most expendable, true, but since the Water had worked, they had little incentive to aid Jack, not after mutinying against him twice. He had had to fall back on the erstwhile Royal Navy sailors.

"What _is_ that?" Elizabeth's voice was unaccustomedly shrill.

"'Tis naught but an earthquake, my dear." Hector sounded as hearty and assured as usual, but Jack had seen him clutch at the tree he was skirting when the earth moved. "As soon as we reach the ship, all will be well."

Jack knew the dangers; a quake could set not just the earth to moving, but the waters too. Well out to sea, it was of no consequence, but on shore the waves could become enormous, racing further inland than during even the greatest of equinoctial storms. If that happened, Jack stood no chance of seeing his plans succeed.

He edged closer to Murtogg and spoke in an undertone.

"Now."

The barrel was difficult for one man to carry, but not impossible, to Jack's relief. He was ready when Murtogg shrieked and let go; Mullroy's following suit was unexpected.

"Indians!" cried out Murtogg, dancing up and down and pointing back in the direction from which they had come.

Everyone but Jack turned to look, their hands automatically drawing swords or pistols. Crimp and Matelot dropped their barrel of the precious water, but neither Barbossa nor Elizabeth seemed to notice, so focused were the two of them on the trees behind which any number of natives might be hiding. The barrel rolled but did not shatter, which was just as well, since the others would be much quicker to look around for the one that Jack held if it proved to be the only one to survive.

"Protect that barrel!" Jack barked at Matelot to sound as if he were doing something useful. Then he took off running. Or rather, he took off running as well as a man could run while carrying a large and heavy burden nearly as tall as he was himself. He was counting on Barbossa and Elizabeth believing that his intention was to save the treasure rather than to escape with it. Another rumble shook the ground, almost causing Jack to stumble, but at least it was making things just as difficult for Barbossa and his men.

Mullroy and Murtogg were close behind him, just as he had ordered, though moving more slowly than Jack would have liked. So much for the legend of vaunted Royal Navy discipline creating superior physical specimens. They were nearly to the shore now, where the boats would be waiting to take them to the _Pearl_. He gestured for the two men to take the barrel from him.

"Aren't we going to help the others?" asked Mullroy, clearly confused.

"There's no actual Indians," Murtogg reminded him, shaking his head as he hoisted the barrel with a grunt.

"But the earthquakes. There could be a tidal wave..."

"Which is why we must get the _Black Pearl_ out to sea as quickly as possible," Jack interrupted. "Your orders are to protect the Water of Life at all costs. Isn't that what Captain Barbossa said?"

"But if Captain Barbossa falls behind, then why do we have to follow his orders? I say we leave the Water and save ourselves!"

"Just keep moving," Jack ordered, pushing aside long, leafy brush and emerging on the sand. There were the boats, right where they'd left them, and he could see the _Pearl_ out in the churning sea. All they needed to do now was to get the barrel with the Water into a boat, then reach the _Pearl_ before Barbossa and the others could catch up with them. Gibbs would have the crew ready. It had been easier than Jack had ever imagined...

He heard a whoop behind him, then a scream. Like the fools they were, Murtogg and Mullroy had dropped the barrel again, and this time they could all see that it was leaking, a small pool forming where the elixir of eternal youth was flowing out. But Jack had a bigger problem.

"Indians," he sighed. "And me with only one shot for my pistol."

There was no possibility of getting both himself and the barrel of Water to one of the longboats without a very high risk of being dispatched by an Indian before he reached it. Indeed, the two men waiting with the boats had already heard the commotion and were pushing off, heading back for the _Pearl_. Jack could hardly blame them -- he would have done the same -- but it was less than convenient.

"Right." He turned and drew his sword. "Time to fight, lads. We've no choice now."

The brush parted. Elizabeth, Hector, and the other crewmen pelted out; Matelot and Crimp staggering and panting, but still holding their barrel. Elizabeth cut a fine figure while running, especially with her bosom enhanced by her breeding status, but Jack ignored her, waiting for the Indians to appear behind them.

To his surprise Elizabeth stopped next to him. Her hat had fallen off and her hair tumbled loose around her shoulders. She stood with her legs braced wide, her hands on her hips, and let out a blood-curdling whoop.

Jack expected a returning shout, but there was only silence. He gave Elizabeth a quizzical look.

"Sound familiar?" she asked sweetly.

The blood drained from Jack's face. Elizabeth! It had been she who made the war-cry and sent himself, Mullroy, and Murtogg running.

"You... you..." he spluttered, stymied. "You _tricked_ me!"

"Pirate," Elizabeth said, and gave a mocking little bow. "Pirate _king_ ; and you know a ruler must surpass her subjects."

"Murtogg," she addressed the man crisply. "Turn that barrel over. I can see the leak is just at the end and there's no need to lose all of the Water."

He hastened to obey and saluted her as he straightened.

Jack was pleased to see the men in the boats coming back, looking sheepish at having been deceived. "So what now, _majesty_?" he asked, sliding his sword back into his sheath.

"I say leave him here," suggested Barbossa.

Elizabeth shook her head. "He escaped being marooned on a tiny island, twice. Leaving him on the Florida mainland? No. I'd rather have him under my eye." The corner of her mouth twitched up; Jack hoped that meant she was thinking what he was thinking, that she would rather have him under other parts of her anatomy as well.

Barbossa still looked like he thought leaving Jack might be a better idea, but Elizabeth stared him down, and eventually Barbossa shrugged. "A few days in the brig won't do him any harm."

"In the brig? I must protest." Jack had recovered himself sufficiently to remove and wave his hat. "While I realize that I did not, strictly speaking, adhere to the plan, it must be agreed by all present that I fulfilled my primary obligation to protect the Water of Life..."

"And you were going to _protect_ it all the way back to the Caribbean on my ship, were ye not?" demanded Barbossa.

"If you mean the _Pearl_..." But Elizabeth had now turned upon Jack the glare she had previously used to defend Jack to Barbossa, and Jack was forced to conclude that a bit of discretion might be called for. "You know full well that her brig requires extensive repairs," Jack finished instead.

"Gentlemen, every moment we stand here arguing is another moment when the water in that cracked barrel continues to drip out." There was no arguing with Elizabeth's logic. "Mullroy and Murtogg, find something with which to cover and bind that crack. Barbossa, you take the other, with Crimp, Matelot, Pintel, and Ragetti. I will see that these men and this barrel safely follows."

Barbossa looked like he might object, not so much to the plan as to being ordered about, but since Elizabeth had been the one to ruin Jack's plans, he finally scowled and nodded. "What about Norrington?" he asked.

"I must assume that Calypso will return him to the ship. She has never had any trouble finding it before," said Elizabeth.

"If your husband didn't manage to deliver the Water of Life to Davy Jones, we may all wish that she never does," Jack reminded them.

"I trust Will to do what is necessary." Elizabeth tossed her hair, giving Jack another fine glimpse of her clothing tight across her bosom. "In any case, we can do nothing to affect that outcome. Mullroy, have you managed to stop that leak?"

The former Navy officer had jammed a bit of alligator skin into the crack. "Be better if we had some tar," he said.

"I suppose that will have to do, for now." The men by now had stowed the barrels onto the boats. "Gentlemen, the sooner we are away, the safer we and our cargo will be. The fact that we have not been attacked by real Indians does not mean --"

Precisely at that moment, a spear flew out of the trees. "Push off!" Barbossa shouted, and there was a great flurry of activity getting the boats into the water once more while what Jack assumed was the tribe that guarded the Fountain of Youth began to appear on the beach.

"Your cries doubtless alerted them," he pointed out to Elizabeth, even as he helped her clamber over the side and settle down in the boat.

She tilted her head. "Worried that you might be captured and sacrificed again? I haven't heard that the Florida Indians are cannibals like those of Pelegosto. Nor would I expect the famous Captain Jack Sparrow to be so cautious."

Jack humphed. Elizabeth's ability at verbal sparring was too adept, these days.

Murtogg and Mullroy were rowing steadily, but the other boat had already begun to outdistance them, having four men at the oars.

"Shall we assist?" Jack reached for one of the spare oars. "Barbossa does have the full barrel of the Water of Life, and he will reach the _Pearl_ before us."

Elizabeth shifted to sit behind Mullroy, opposite Jack, and picked up an oar. She rowed surprisingly well, and they reached the ship only moments after the other boat, while Pintel was still clambering up the rope ladder. The precious barrel must have been hauled up first.

When Jack's head rose above the railing, the first person he saw was Gibbs, looking -- for him -- quite doleful.

"Cap'n, er, that is, Jack," Gibbs said, with a jerk of his head toward Barbossa. "I have orders to put you in the brig."

"Belay those orders," said Elizabeth crisply as she climbed over the rail. "Jack is not subject to your captain; he is mine."

"Captain!" cried Ragetti. He pointed a shaking hand toward the shore. "Another earthquake!"

Everyone whirled to look. Ragetti was correct. It was difficult to detect the tremor of an earthquake while at sea, but they could all see the trees swaying, some of them toppling over even as they watched.

"Gibbs, set a course for Tortuga," ordered Barbossa, at the same moment as Elizabeth said, "It's time to leave."


	19. Chapter 19

"Tie that down!" Barbossa was roaring as Elizabeth headed to the ladder, intending to follow the barrels with the water to see that they were properly stowed. She was stopped by a hand gripping her arm.

"We need to talk," Hector said. He was not smiling.

She shook her arm free, narrowing her eyes. "If this is about Jack..."

"Jack be the least of it. Crimp! Get those nets stowed!" The trip to Florida had been a success in more ways than one: while she, James, Jack, Hector, and their men had found the Fountain of Youth, Gibbs and the crew left on the _Black Pearl_ had caught enough fish for a voyage across the Atlantic. If only they had had more time to gather fruit while on the shore, they might have sailed around the world... or as far as the rum lasted, at any rate.

Crossing her arms, Elizabeth leaned against a gun to wait until Barbossa had finished shouting orders. A moment later she found herself clutching at it to stay upright as the sea heaved around them.

"We find ourselves tossed in unnatural weather," Hector snapped at her. "If the _Dutchman_ has reached the Locker, why has Norrington not returned? The sea goddess would seem to be unhappy."

"Perhaps she is shaking with pleasure," retorted Elizabeth, half-lowering her eyelids and imitating a shudder she felt certain Hector would recognize. Indeed, his eyes widened and for a moment he appeared to forget whatever it was that he had wished to say.

"Haul that pallet line!" she heard Jack shout. Hector's head swung around, and when he looked back at Elizabeth, his lips had flattened.

"A ship must have one captain. _One_ ," he said. "You will cease to give me orders, and you will not countermand those I give."

"I'm still not letting you put Jack in the brig," she replied, catching a rope as it swung free and twisting it around the nearest belaying pin. "A ship's crew must have confidence in its captain for its morale. I told you that Jack would not lead a mutiny, and he has not. What can he do to you now? If you wish to secure your claim on the _Pearl_ , the best thing you could possibly do would be to seem entirely unconcerned about Jack's ineffective attempts to retake it."

"That..." Hector began, loudly, then visibly took hold of himself. "That is ridiculous, madam."

"Is it?" Elizabeth secured another line. "Tell me, has Jack _ever_ succeeded in his elaborate schemes? I know of none that worked, not as originally planned."

Hector snorted. "Nevertheless, my point remains. If two, or worse, three 'captains' give contradictory orders, what is the crew to do? It is manifestly an untenable situation, and I'll not have it on my ship."

" _Your_ ship?" Jack's grin had a few too many teeth in it as he appeared behind Hector.

"Mine." Hector's expression was equally adamant.

"Gentlemen," said Elizabeth, stepping between them. "While I agree this situation begs for a resolution, might I suggest that we first get ourselves out of danger, lest there be no ship over which to quarrel?"

The men scowled, but Hector went aft to take charge of the wheel from Gibbs, while Jack hurried forward and bawled orders at the men raising sail on the fore and main masts. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and hoped that James would turn up soon.

Her hope was rewarded. Calypso did not put in an appearance, but when Elizabeth returned from the captain's quarters, where she had seen that the two kegs of water were secured -- the one carefully turned so that its leaky spot was on top -- James was there on the deck, looking out at the tossing sea.

"James!" she said in relief. "You succeeded in finding Jones?"

He nodded. "Will persuaded him to drink the Water, and Calypso took him away with her. I gather that Jack did not manage to steal his ship back?"

"Not for want of trying," Elizabeth said. "He feigned an attack by Indians, but I guessed his trick... and then a real band of them appeared, at the same time as the first earthquake hit."

"You've been busy. Were you able to bring any of the Water away with you?"

"Two barrels full," she replied, not without pride in her voice. "Though one has leaked a bit. They're in the Great Cabin."

"With someone guarding them, I hope?"

"Pintel and Ragetti," she nodded. She had thought it best for the moment to leave the barrels under the supervision of the two men who no longer had anything to gain from their contents. The ship lurched, hurling her forward, and James caught her. "But what happened with Calypso? She said that she would protect us if we did her bidding, and these seas are anything but calm."

"Perhaps Calypso knows that if she keeps Sparrow and Barbossa busy, they won't have time to plot against each other," replied James, smiling at her. "And perhaps while they are busy..."

"Norrington! I'd thought to put you down for a deserter!" Barbossa's bellow reached them loud and clear over the hollers on deck and the noisy waves against the sides of the ship. "Make yourself useful, get below and secure the armory!"

With a sigh, James released Elizabeth, who promised, "We'll catch up later. Once we're away, whichever of us is not needed on deck should be guarding the Water." She didn't think it would take much effort to convince Hector to let her sleep in his bed.

As they made sail from Florida, Elizabeth began to wonder whether James wasn't correct that the storm was intended as a distraction. The sea was turbulent enough to keep the crew busy yet not so turbulent that she ever feared for the ship. Both Barbossa and Jack were cross, but though some harsh words were exchanged, nobody drew a sword or a pistol.

She smiled at Hector, knowing that it was far more essential for her to make peace with him than with Jack -- for one thing, he still had control of the ship and crew, and for another, she'd been correct that Jack and his schemes were hardly reliable. "I assume you have a plan for when we reach Tortuga?" she asked.

"Aye," he replied, returning her smile with a enigmatic grin. "Will you be wanting your share of the Water, or have you come to ask me to ferry you to some other location?"

Elizabeth cocked her head, considering. She had no intention of giving birth to her child in Tortuga, nor had she entire confidence in Calypso's herb-brews. Though she had a passing acquaintance with some midwives in Port Royal, she no longer felt that it was her home, after what had happened to her father there. All her remaining relatives were in England, and while they had sent the occasional letter, she hadn't seen any of them since she was a young girl.

"Actually, yes," she told him. "I need passage across the Atlantic. To Robin Hood's Bay."

Hector threw back his head and laughed. "You expect me to sail around the whole of Britain to deposit you in a notorious smuggler's town? What would be the reward for this very dangerous venture?"

She stepped closer. "You wouldn't do it merely for the honor of escorting the Pirate King?"

"I would prefer something more tangible," he said with a gleam in his eye.

"That could be negotiated," Elizabeth agreed. "Need we stop at Tortuga at all, come to that? If you are to take me east, the island is scarcely on the way."

"The crew expects Tortuga to be our destination." Hector scratched at his scraggly beard. "I misdoubt that any of them would mutiny at the notion of a change of course, however; they are mostly wanted for various crimes here in the Caribbean, but might not be so well known in the North Sea."

"Done, then." She smiled sweetly.

"Now wait a moment," he countered. "That was no accord we made, merely a suggestion on your part. As I said, I have plans in Tortuga, plans for which delay could be... hazardous."

"Surely there is something that would make it worth your while?" Elizabeth fluttered her eyelashes at him and inhaled deeply.

"I might be persuadable, at that." Hector cocked his head at the deck above. "Curse those louts! We'll settle our agreement later." He stalked out, muttering to himself.

Elizabeth checked that neither barrel had sprung another leak, nor been tapped illicitly. Both were secure. She stretched out on the captain's berth, intending merely to rest a short time, until Hector returned.

She startled awake. The sun had set, and only faint pale moonlight illuminated the cabin. Outside the storm still blew; what noise, then, had roused her?

"Who's there?" she said, keeping her voice steady.


	20. Chapter 20

"It is my cabin." Hector watched from the shadows as Elizabeth reached for a weapon that was not there. "In fact, that is my bed."

"So it is." He watched while Elizabeth rubbed her eyes, still looking delightfully drowsy and tousled. "Have you left the command deck to Jack?"

"I haven't lost my mind. Norrington has the deck. Jack is probably in the hold, looking for something of mine to steal." His favorite chair had skidded from the table, and Hector pulled it closer to Elizabeth before he sat. "I believe that we have a negotiation to complete."

"I want passage for myself and James across the Atlantic," she said promptly. "As soon as possible, before winter ice can make the journey difficult. I've no intention of giving birth at sea."

Hector leaned over to the table for an apple. Upon consideration, he took a second for Elizabeth and handed it to her. "You don't think the sea goddess will protect you and your spawn after what you've done for her?" he asked.

"If Calypso could not be trusted to appear on the one day in ten years when her lover could be with her on land, I can't be confident that she'll look out for me. And I don't suppose anyone on this crew has experience delivering babies."

That was likely the case, and even if she were wrong, Hector had no wish to play host to a screaming infant, no matter how attractive the mother. He wondered whether Elizabeth might be persuaded in a few months to leave the child with her family and return to sea with himself. This was not the time for such a conversation, however. "So you want me to take you to England, without stopping in Tortuga to fulfill my obligations," he mused aloud.

"To Robin Hood's Bay. A smuggler's town. Surely there must be matters of interest to you there."

"And why is it of interest to you? You don't sound like a Yorkshire lass. Are you planning to launch a raid on Scandinavian ports? I doubt that your friend Norrington will approve."

"Let me worry about Norrington." She smiled charmingly. "Have you heard of the _Almirante di Florencia_? She is said to have gone down in Tobermory Bay after the Spanish Armada, with her gold and treasure intact."

"Aye, and how do you propose to penetrate the waters off Mull to find a wreck that has lain there since 1588?" Hector demanded. "Not to mention the small problem that it's on the opposite side of the island."

"My point was that there are many unclaimed treasures in Britain. And I have family there to protect me. As my guest, they would treat you well."

"Would they, now." Hector regarded his apple thoughtfully. "And my men?"

"If you're busy claiming treasure, that would keep them gainfully occupied... well, occupied anyhow."

"And if I take advantage of your family's hospitality? Smuggling is more work than piracy, and breaking into the business might not be well-taken by the locals, even if any of me crew were to attempt it. Jack is _not_ the man to put in charge of such an effort." He crunched into the apple for emphasis.

Elizabeth shrugged. "Pay the crew off, then, and hire new men when you wish to leave. I would suggest offering them cash rather than a share of the Water, myself."

"We never have reached an accord on the appropriate division of those spoils," Hector pointed out.

"Six shares." The wench had evidently given it some thought. "One each for you, me, James, and Jack; two to divide amongst the men, except that Ragetti and Pintel's are reduced since they already drank some."

Hector thought about it. The crew would have to receive _something_ ; his original mutiny against Sparrow had succeeded because he had convinced the men that they deserved a reasonable share of the Aztec treasure. A few of those men were still on the _Pearl_ , and they would not have forgotten his arguments then. He doubted Elizabeth would agree to less than a full share for Sparrow, curse the man. With a little reluctance he admitted that Norrington deserved one, if for no other reason than that without him Elizabeth would probably not be here now.

"Done." He spat on his hand and held it out to her.

She did not hesitate before doing the same, shaking his hand to seal the bargain. He held on to hers.

"D'you know why another word for oath is testimony?"

"No."

"An oath should be sworn on a sacred object, and old custom had it that a man's virility was the most sacred thing he possessed, so they swore on the testes, hence 'testimony'." Hector grinned. "We could stretch a point for you, and let you vow on your bosom."

"That hardly seems like the most sacred thing I possess." She rested her hand over her belly, which was still only faintly rounded, then slid it lower. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Hector knew that he was staring. In the previous weeks, there wasn't a spot on her body where Elizabeth had not let him put his hands and mouth, but she had never spread her legs for him -- nor, as he understood it from the complaints he had overheard, for Jack. "I might need to conduct a bit of study to be sure," he said, his mouth suddenly dry. He'd never made love to a pregnant woman -- at least, not to one who'd bothered to tell him about it at the time. Who knew, with whores?

Elizabeth smiled at him. "As you said, I _am_ in your bed." She settled back against the fine stolen sheets, which Hector's crew had kindly washed for him while he was on shore. He didn't want to imagine who might have been sneaking into the cabin, and for what, that they had felt that need. "I suppose it's large enough for two."

Hector started to rise out of his chair, then hesitated, frowning. "All joking aside, I would not have you offer me payment in any coin not to your liking. There are other bargains to be struck..."

"Captain Barbossa," Elizabeth interrupted him indignantly. "Do I seem so desperate that I would sell myself only to consummate a deal?" She huffed softly. "If it is not to _your_ liking, then perhaps you could tell me another story about raiding with Don Rafael..."

He didn't let her finish, crossing to the bed and reaching to unlace her bodice. Her bosom might not be the most precious thing she possessed, but it was very fine nonetheless, and he was eager to see it. She moaned to encourage him, sliding a hand over the front of his breeches as his mouth found her earlobe and sucked it.

"You always start without me, and here I'd left Gibbs in command to avoid that very thing." The voice, which came from across the cabin, was more amused than reproachful, but Hector muttered a curse nonetheless.

"Damn you, Norrington, can't you see we're busy?"

"I can." James crossed into the moonlight through the windows, smiling, taking a seat in the chair Hector had vacated. "Carry on, please. I'm sure I can guard Elizabeth from here."

She smiled so sweetly at Norrington that it made Hector scowl again. "You only want to watch?"

"I'm afraid, Captain Swann, that your husband rather wore me out."

Elizabeth's laugh sounded pleased rather than envious. "All right, then, you can tell me about it while Hector gets me out of these awful rags."

"So you want a bedtime story?" James chuckled. "Will asked me for the same."

"Yes, please..." Elizabeth's response was cut off by a gasp as Hector licked her newly-bared nipple.

He couldn't help hearing Norrington's enthusiastic and detailed description of Will Turner's assets and the uses to which the man put them, even as he explored anew the body that had begun to swell with Turner's child. It seemed unlikely that Hector would ever have the chance to appraise those assets for himself, but he found he enjoyed hearing about them.

So did Elizabeth, writhing in response to both Hector's touch and James's words.

Hector stripped the last of her clothes from her and laid her down across the bed, standing back to admire the wanton way that she stretched her limbs out.

"I might have to change my mind," James commented at the sight.

Hector quashed his first impulse -- somehow he doubted Elizabeth would appreciate it if he clouted Norrington across the face -- and said, albeit through gritted teeth, "The lady has the privilege of deciding, I believe."

"Am I invited too?" Sparrow's voice drawled from the doorway.

This time Hector couldn't help cursing, though he managed to keep it under his breath so that only James heard. Better him than Elizabeth.

"What do you have to offer to this..."

"Affair? Bacchanal? Orgy?" Sparrow finished her sentence. "Let me remind you. I _am_ Captain Jack Sparrow."

"And I suppose we're safer with him here than on deck while we are otherwise distracted," said James. "At least I believe Mister Gibbs is relatively sober tonight."

"Now that the seas have calmed, I'm certain that Mister Gibbs can manage the crew." Jack strode over, standing shoulder to shoulder with Elizabeth, gazing down at her greedily. "Well, love? Am I invited?"

Elizabeth's eyes drifted from Jack to Hector and back again. "It seems only fair that you should have to wait, since you did try to steal the Water and the ship."

"I did no such..."

"James, would you mind very much shutting him up?"

Laughing, James kicked out one foot, catching Jack around the ankle and tugging. "I believe the lady would prefer you muzzled. I have just the thing to keep your mouth occupied."

"It wasn't the thing I had in mind," Jack complained, but he turned around willingly enough, watching as Norrington spread his knees.

That was all the attention Hector was willing to spare them. Sitting back on the bunk, he returned his mouth to Elizabeth's bosom, which was indeed an asset worthy to swear an oath upon. She moaned softly, fingers sliding into Hector's hair.

"I believe, Captain, that you still have your breeches on. Let me help you with those."

If Hector Barbossa had ever seen a more alluring sight than Elizabeth Swann bending over, naked, hair falling around her face with its wicked smile, as she reached for the laces on his clothing, he could not now remember what it had been. Certainly not mermaids or sirens or sea goddesses. He heard James groan behind him, but whether that was from looking at the same sight or from whatever Sparrow was doing with his mouth, Hector neither knew nor cared.

Elizabeth made quick work of his clothing despite pausing often to stroke his skin as she bared it. By the time she had finished Hector was more than ready to pin her to the bed, but she directed his mouth to her wet slit first.

She had not expressly promised that he could swive her, yet Hector trusted her to live up to the implicit bargain, so he bent with good will to lave her folds with his tongue, suckling her engorged nub until her quick breaths became moans and she tugged at his hair.

"Enough -- I need --"

Hector's mouth met hers before she could finish. The head of his prick pressed against her moist flesh, probing; he reached down and guided himself into her. She groaned again. The sounds behind them had stopped and Hector supposed that the other two men were watching. He grinned to himself and bit at Elizabeth's neck. They all wanted her, but he had had her first.

Suddenly the bed shifted, and shifted again. More fingers than Elizabeth's stroked Hector's arse, fondling his bollocks, probing between his cheeks. Other hands crept between himself and Elizabeth to stroke her breasts, giving a pinch to Hector's nipples in passing.

"You don't mind, do you Hector?" Elizabeth murmured against his mouth.

He did, but not much. So he shrugged and continued thrusting, varying his pace: a few quick strokes followed by several long slow ones, then pulling nearly all the way out only to revel in Elizabeth's moist heat as he slid back inside her.

Oil dripped between his buttocks.

"This was not part of our agreement," he protested.

"Do you object?" asked James, sounding amused. "I thought you said you liked to receive."

Elizabeth smiled up at him breathlessly. "Can we not expand the agreement? Someone once told me the Pirate code was more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules," she murmured.

Whatever James was doing back there with his fingers, he was, at least, skilled at it. "Sure you're not a pirate, Norrington?" panted Hector between thrusts.

"He is now." Jack, at least, sounded entirely cheerful. He had shifted up behind Elizabeth, who reached a hand back over her head, seeking him. Jack's fingers found hers and drew her palm toward his prick. Some of her hair tangled in their fingers and fell across Sparrow's thighs and groin, apparently to his pleasure.

A finger breached Hector, simultaneously distracting him from and enhancing the feel of Elizabeth's muscles squeezing around his own prick. His hips jerked, which in turn made Elizabeth moan. "Careful, or I may hurt the lady," he growled at James.

"I'll go slowly." James stretched out, carefully lowering his weight against Hector so as not to flatten him over Elizabeth; he kissed the back of his neck. That was something with which Hector had little experience, and he shivered in spite of himself.

James must have felt it, for he pushed Hector's hair aside and continued to kiss across his shoulders and upper back. He was rubbing himself in the oil he had dripped between Hector's buttocks, but not trying to thrust inside... not yet, anyway. "Not crushing you, are we?" he asked Elizabeth.

"No... oh... only in the best way," she moaned, raising her legs higher, so that they pressed against James as well as Hector. This wouldn't be so bad, he thought, if only Norrington and Sparrow would shut up.

Keeping quiet, however, was not Jack's way. "Just like that, love," he murmured to Elizabeth, though Jack himself was the one moving her hand upon himself.

Hector decided that the best thing was to ignore Jack as much as possible, under the circumstances. At least Sparrow was not interfering with Hector's own pleasure in any way; if he had taken one of Elizabeth's hands, Hector still had the other, and one of Norrington's -- James having to use his left hand to prop himself up so as not to squash the two beneath him.

"Ready?" James asked with a nip at Hector's earlobe that sent delightful chills all through him.

In answer Hector could only make a groan that he hoped would be taken as assent, his own mouth being busy teasing one of Elizabeth's nipples.

James evidently understood, for Hector felt himself breached, more firmly than he had expected but without excessive force. As James moved, Hector's own prick pressed deeper into Elizabeth.

They set up a gentle rhythm, each of James's thrusts transmitting its momentum through Hector to Elizabeth. In the background Jack was babbling some nonsense -- doubtless urging Elizabeth on -- but Hector paid no attention to him. He had had quite a lot of experience over many years at sea, yet this particular conjunction was new to him and far more than merely enjoyable. Elizabeth's breath was sweet with apples in his face, her quim warmly inviting, and James's motions had a finesse that delighted at every stroke.

Elizabeth had tilted her hips to grind against him. "Oh -- oh -- oh!" A new spurt of wetness let his prick move slickly within her even as she contracted in flutters around him. "Don't... don't stop," she panted, her eyes huge, her fingernails digging into his back to pull him closer.

"Faster," Hector snarled at James, who obliged.

His climax would come sooner than he might have wished, this way, but he could not deny Elizabeth, not now. The wet heat of her, the throbbing heat of James, together pushed him to the edge, and he spent with a groan that seemed to rise up from his very toes.


	21. Chapter 21

James could feel Hector clenching around him, the uneven spasms quite beyond the pirate's control. Not that he could blame the man: if he'd been making love to Elizabeth, he doubted he'd have lasted as long even without the sort of stimulation that James had been providing Hector's arse.

As much as James would have liked to finish inside Elizabeth as well, he knew that he'd have to stop what he was doing and clean himself up first, and he was enjoying himself too much to want such an interruption. Besides, Elizabeth was crying out, continuing to impale herself on Hector as he caught his breath. James pounded into him, pushing Hector into Elizabeth, and even half-hard after ejaculating, he must have been enough for her, because she threw her head back and let out a shriek of pleasure that surely could be heard across the gun deck.

"That's very nice," muttered Jack, his eyes moving from Elizabeth's contorted features to James's sweat-streaked face. "I'll be wanting a turn in the middle some time, myself."

"If you earn it." That was Hector, groaning softly as he pushed back on James's still-rigid prick, disengaging his own from Elizabeth as she caught her breath. "For as long as you're on my ship --"

" _My_ ship," Jack interrupted with an emphatic forward thrust of his hips.

"-- _my_ ship," growled Barbossa, tensing, which made him clench delightfully around James once more.

"Gentlemen." Elizabeth still sounded gratifyingly breathless. "Are we not in the midst of a most valuable lesson about the virtues of sharing?"

When Jack did not reply, she pulled her hand away from him. "I haven't finished!" he protested.

"If you insist on having everything for yourself, Jack, you'll have to do _this_ for yourself as well." Even in post-coital languor, her glare held a threat.

"But..." Jack looked to James for support, saw that James was still thrusting enthusiastically in and out of Hector, and sighed in frustration. "All right, then, _our_ ship," he said, gazing beseechingly at Elizabeth.

James wasn't quite sure what Elizabeth murmured then, although it sounded remarkably like, "He _can_ be taught."

Louder she said, "All right, Hector. Let Jack take your place... if you don't mind, James?"

"As you wish, madam." James withdrew himself from Hector's arse and waited as the other two men changed places, wiping himself clean. Hector looked more relaxed and at ease than James had ever seen him, and he suspected the cause was divided equally between Elizabeth's embraces and Jack's concession. James himself did not, in fact, mind which man he had underneath him if he could not have Elizabeth. He trusted that on another night he would get his chance.

"Just hand me that flask if you would, Hector," he said, nodding toward the oil he had set aside.

"I'll do better than that for ye," Hector replied with a snaggle-toothed grin. "Jack's required this service of me before, hasn't he?"

James imagined it had been quite some time since that had been the case, but Hector was quick and thorough in making Jack ready. The delay had cooled James's ardor slightly, which perhaps was no bad thing.

Jack's arse felt subtly different from Hector's as James thrust home: tighter, not quite as heated. Different, but still good. Jack's skin was saltier, too, when James bit at his neck.

"Watch your teeth, mate," said Jack, but James had felt his arsehole clench and knew that Jack merely feared to come too soon.

Elizabeth was gasping and moaning again, her hands wandering over both men's bodies as James thrust into Jack and Jack into her. If James couldn't probe her luscious hole himself, this was the next best thing; it was his motions, indirectly, that were bringing her such delight.

Hector had crawled around behind Elizabeth, settling where Jack had been. He did not try to bring Elizabeth's hand to his now-spent prick but instead reached to stroke her throat and shoulders. "Comfortable?" he asked her.

"Oh yes -- your bunk was well built for this," she gasped, arching as Jack freed one hand, resting all his weight on the other arm, and working it between himself and her.

"I never thought to share it with three others at once," Hector said in almost conversational tones, sounding quite pleased with himself. "One of the advantages of being the captain." His gaze shifted to Jack as if expecting the other pirate to object, but Jack was too focused on Elizabeth and the pleasure he was taking from her.

"And an advantage of no longer being dead." James winked at Hector, grinning. The entire situation was absurd -- that he should be the lover not only of his own onetime fiancé, and the pirate who had kidnapped her from Port Royal, and the pirate who had rescued her, but also the blacksmith-turned-pirate whom she had married, all of whom had spent time in the world beyond the world. He'd had to contend with sea monsters and sea goddesses and all manner of creature he'd have ridiculed as superstition a few months earlier.

And as Calypso had correctly guessed, James had never been more content. He bit down again on Jack's shoulder, feeling Jack quiver and buck beneath him, and laughed.

"Harder -- oh -- " Whether Elizabeth was speaking to himself or to Jack, James couldn't be certain, but he thrust more firmly, making Jack move in his own rhythm. The ship was rocking as well, heaving on the waves and giving them unexpected jolts, which added to his pleasure.

"You would seem to be enjoying yourself, Admiral." Barbossa was watching him now, James realized, without the usual distrust fixed on his features. He appeared to have a better appreciation of James's assets.

Nodding, James smiled at him. "If I can no longer command a fleet, this is an acceptable position in which to find myself. Quite on top."

He waited to see whether Jack would argue, but Jack was no longer making coherent sounds; he had been reduced to grunts. Even so, Jack retained enough control to squeeze quite firmly around James, whose own control was perilously close to fraying, watching Elizabeth as she closed her eyes and tilted her head into Hector's wandering hands. "From now on, instead of quarreling, we shall do this," Elizabeth decreed.

"Aye," agreed Hector, with a slow thoughtful nod.

Jack quivered and collapsed forward onto Elizabeth's bosom, his arse contracting around James's prick once more, milking out an orgasm that shuddered on for longer than James usually experienced.

"Jack?" Elizabeth prodded the pirate's shoulder. "Do you agree?"

"You give me little choice," Jack complained, his voice muffled against her skin, "but yes."

"So do I," James added when he had caught his breath sufficiently to speak.

"Then we have an accord." Elizabeth gave them all a smile so triumphant that James wondered if this had not been her purpose all the time. "Shall we drink a toast to it?'

"Aye." Grinning, Hector slid a decorated pillow behind Elizabeth's head so that he could slip out. At the same time, James withdrew from Jack's arse and Jack, grunting, flopped to Elizabeth's side.

Fetching a goblet, Hector worked free the alligator hide wedged into the crack at the top of the barrel holding the Water of Life and pressed in a gold spigot pillaged from who knew where. Once the goblet was full, he capped off the spigot and returned to the bed.

"I shall have this first as well," he declared, and drank deeply. Elizabeth tilted her head to the side to watch him, as did Jack and James. After a few moments, Hector sighed happily. "First time since I returned from the dead my teeth haven't pained me." His skin looked healthier, too, the pockmarks faded, his cheeks less ruddy than glowing with health.

"My turn." Sitting up, Jack took the goblet from Hector and waved it in a circle, gesturing at each of them. "To piracy." He gulped down a swallow, cocked his head to the side, and passed the goblet to James. "I can't say as I feel any different."

"Perhaps you were already feeling quite content," said Elizabeth. She looked equally so, reclining on the embroidered pillow, and she waved away the cup when James offered it to her. "I must not. Not until after the child is born."

Nodding, James glanced into the cup, then took a swallow. He knew from Calypso that it would not restore him fully -- it would not break the agreement that allowed him to be here, now, among this company. But the Water was cool and fresh, and James found that he did not mind.

"To absent friends," he murmured. Elizabeth nodded, smiling wistfully. After a moment the others did as well.

"Now, Jack, you're due on watch," announced Hector, settling himself more comfortably at Elizabeth's side.

"I believe that, taking into account the time of our arrival in this cabin and the duties performed beforehand, Captain, _you_ are due on watch," Jack replied. "And I might well ask, what is our ultimate destination?"

Hector and Elizabeth exchanged a glance. "Tobermory Bay," Hector said.

"The Armada treasure?" Jack's eyes lit up.

Winking at Elizabeth, James extricated himself from the tangle of arms and legs on the bed. There would be time later, he knew, to discover her real plans.

"I'll take this watch," he told them. "But next time, I shall be first for everything else as well."

"I'll save you an apple," Hector called cheerfully after him.


End file.
